Where Reason Fades
by greigvknkb
Summary: Sentenced to charity work after a drunken incident, Prince Arthur is less than thrilled to meet the sarcastic head of the charity, Merlin; only he can't seem to get him out of his head. As the pair slowly grow closer, it seems the universe is trying to pull them apart. But with magical threats lurking in every corner of Arthur's life, maybe a little magic is exactly what he needs.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi guys I hope you like me new story! Some peope said I shoulf get a beta so I asked my friend to proofread and she helped a lot. Hopefully I will improve now! Anyway please enjoy an dlet me know what yu think!

Thoughtless at first, but ere eve's star appeared

His phantasy was lost, where reason fades

The red sun, one of two suns that floated in the sky casting a weak mellancholy light through the polluted ar, scorched the makeshift camps of Tintagel. Merlin sighed deeply exhausted. He had worked through the nights long darkness helping to house the lastest refugees from King Uther's on going war with the Mercian Galaxy. It had been a war that had dragged through the years of Merlin's life with Uther becoming increasing desperate to unite the fractured Albian Nebula: a cause, which would have been far more worthy, in Merlin's opionion, had the King not combined this with a fierce persecution of magic users.

To most Uther was a fair and a just King who waged war out of a desire for peace and freedom for all, but Merlin had seen to much death and suffering in his time to cheer proudly for the soldiers the way others did, lining up to watch there parade and working endlessly to support the charities in their favour, unaware that they had been set up by the very institution that ensured they were wounded in the first place, and blandly ignoring the people who needed help the most, cast our of their homes and with nothing lef tof there planets but dust an floating rocks. He had been thrown into helping at the refugee camps after becoming one himself, forced to leave his tiny home dwarf planet of Ealdor when a rogue space lord captured it, and butchering its citizens and laying waste to its fertile green forests and open fields of produce.

Merlin dreamed of a time that he could return, that he could find out what fate had befallen his mother, but until then he was stuck on the firey Tintagel, unable to know if she wassafe, or even if she was alive. Daily he had looked for her in the crows when he'd first become resident on this planet, but now his hope had dwindled, sparking only when he saw a ditant blue headscarf among the croweds, only to be quickly crushed when he realised it wasn't her. It was never her.

Merlin was pulled from his contemlation by the clattering arrival of Gwen, ihs friend and colleague. He swirled around from the window and smiled at her widely taking one of the food crates she carried from her strong but delicate arms. Gwen hadn't come here as a refuge, she had been raised in Tintagel, her father was a local repairman. As the entire area had never been one of the more affluant corners of the galaxy they were by no means wealthy, and Gwen had been helping her father's shop for years before she had started working at MSA – Merlin's chatity.

"Did you even go home last night?" she asked, setting down the other on the counter that ran through the camps kitchen.

"I sleept." Merlin replied, hoping Gwen would fail to notice that that was not an answer to question. Judging by her knowling look, it did not work. He shrugged.

"We have a big day ahead. His Royal Highness Prince Arthur will only want to see the most photographic orphans. I spent the night picking out just the right one that'll pull at the heartstrings when Arthur's splashed over the front covers." Merlin explained.

"Merlin!" Gwen was scandalised at Merlin's sarcasm and he sighed and rubbed a ahand down his face.

"I'm sorry, this is just such a bad time Gwen!" Merlin alsmost cried, they were so swamped, aside from the regugees from the war two cities in the Escatian territories had been attacked by Raiders and transport ships were bringing people in daily, some suffered aggressively from shock and dehydration, they had to get everyone settled. Fortunately Merlin had a way of ensuring they never rand out of clean water, but it stilt ok time and the process was exhaistig.

"And when would be a good time?" Gwen asked with a raised eyebrow and hands on her hips.

"Never?" Gwen rolled her eyes at Merlin as he silently pled with her.

"This will be very good for us! If we could get royal endorsement..."

"I know, Gwen, I know! I just wish it wasn't coming from the royal who bought the people here in the first place!" Merlin ran a hand through his hair causing it to stick up in all directions and Gwen tutted and tried to flatten his hair again.

"Stop messing up your hair. I know you wish it was someone else but we need his help. If we can't secure more funding, we can't continue to run. We'll end up feeding the orphans your cats." She said, only half joking. Since Merlin had arrived, the camp seemed over run with the animals, which weren't even native to Tinatgel

"I could keep us running" Merlin muttered under his breath and Gwen gave him a warning glare and looked like she was about to scold him, but then she was interrupted by the arrival of a hulk of aman in a black suit.

"Mr Emrys a word" He said and his voice did not make that a question, they were going to have a word regardless. Merlin signed.

"What now?" He asked irritably.

"The price will be arriving soon. If you could make your way to the port." He held out a hand to direct Merlin and Merlin sighed again. He didn't even get to choose where he went and when any more. Merlin walked out of the kitchen towrds the dock doors and Gwen followed with him. I see no one has bothered to roll out the red carpet he thought, sarcastically.

Stood at the outskirts of the camp was the sleeckest space cruiser that Merlin had ever seen before him. It was a large but smooth and minimal black matte ship that oozed wealth while remaining understated- apart from the golden Pendragon crest emblasoned on the smooth ship doors. The smooth doors that were now opening with a gentle pneumonic hiss.

Out of the door stepped the Prince. Gwen bowed her head at the very sight of him, but Merlin kept his held high as the familiar face walked down the steps that led from the door. Merlin blanched and swallowed hard. He had seen Arhtur's photo many times, even in this corner of the Galaxy, he was the type of celebitry it was impossible to avoid: But the way his golden hair caught the dancing light of the plant's dual suns made Merlin's heart beat faster. The strong jaw looked like it had been chiselled out of the sandy cliffs that lined the Tinatgellen desserts, so deep was the prince's tan of his skin. it made the crisp white of his shirt stand out even more in contrast to the dark charcole of his suit, slim fitted to perfection and with just a slight sheen when he moved. Bulletprrof material, Merlin realised suddenly. He stutted towards the pair like the earth he stood on was owned by him, one day it would be supposed Merlin with rue. As he approached, Merlin's eyes were drawn to his hands, which were strong-looking and rougher than Merlin would have thought of a pampered princeling.

"Your highness" Gwen muttered deferentially, with a polite courtsey.

"Ms Nevere." Arthur acknowledged her.

"Hi I'm Merlin" smiled Merlin and stuck out his hand for Arthur to shake. Arthur raised a brow at the offending hand imperialously before catching himself and smiling as he took Merlin's hand. Merlin could feel the rough callouses on the pads of his palms and fingers and was some what surprised at this evidence of hard work. Gwen shot Merlin a warning look and Merlin deflated.

"Thank you for visiting us. You're just in time to help with breakfast." Gwen said, smiling genuinely. Another pair of hands could always be put to good use. Arhtur trailed after the pair back towards the kitchen, flanked by the tall men in black.

Having been provided with an apron - which the Prince paired with self depricating grin that made Merlin roll his eys - and a ladel, Arthur set about serving porridge too shy children and gushing women a like while his onterage of photogrophers took what Merlin could only assume to be about a million photos and holos of him. Merlin just focussed on ignoring it as much as possible and getting on with his job.

When the breackfast was served, Arthur made himself useful helping the children, which elected joyful squeals from them and swoons from half the women in the canteen. The photo jounralists who followed Arthur everywhere were going crazy, taking particular interest when Arthur took a young blond boy who had lost both of his hands in the war on his lap and spoon feeding him. As he did this the pair spoke in hushed tones, Arthur asking after his family. Gwen turned to Merlin with a smug smile on her face as Merlin and she watched the pair.

"Oh, please, it's good Pendrgon publicity." Melrin said, smiling slightly despite himself- Arthur did look very cute with the boy, sitting together with their blond hairs, the pair could almost be mistaken for father and son.

The hours continued throuhout the day, and Prince Arthur followed Gwen and Merlin around the camp attendively, glaring occusationly at the cats but seeming to take a genuine interest in the work that the camp did and the trouble of the misplaced people it cared for. Gwen was feeling confident, as the trio left the medical ward, after a visit to the sick and elderly. Merlin had resolutely ignored how genuinely charming and conerned Arthur had seemed about the elderly women who had been chucking over him like mother hens, instead becoming more enraged with every click of the cameras and smile from the prince. This was such a waste of his time and he hated being implicit is such a transparant publicity stunt. They headed back through the pop up town. Suddenly Gwen's satphone chirruped from her belt.

"Oh, ecxuse me..." She said as she snapped the phone from her belt and answered it, moving away from the pair of men to the relative quiet of the kitchen. They stood in tense silence, Merlin preseed his lips together and scowled. He refused to look at the man next to him, irritated as he was by his callus show, using people and children who had suffered to improve his image, to make it seem like he cared. The seconds ticked on, Merlin thoughs a sworling nebula of spite and rage until they were very rudely interrupted.

"What is your problem?" Merlin glanced to the side and saw Arthur facing him, arms by his side and face a newtral mask with no feeling showing. Merlin couldn't tell what he meant by that, was it an attack? Just badly worded curiosity? He decided to answer honestly.

"You." He said shortly with his jaw tight. Arthur's eyes narrowed and he could see the slight shimmer of his suit as he expanded his broad shoulders.

"And what could I possibly have done to offend you? I didn't have to come here and offer our endorsement, and I certainly didn't have to help out-" Arthur gestured widely to the camp but Merin cut him off.

"No you didn't, your space highness, but here you are with your photographers and your security sitting with Edwin who lost his parents and his hands in your fathers war making it look like you care. You think you can just drop in for a quick photo oppurtunity to make everyone love you but you have no idea what these people have been through you arrogant prat! Yo don't know what they've lost.." Merlin had been shoutig by the end, Arthur's jaw getting tighter and his lips disappearing in a thin line as Merlin went on.

"Actully it's your galactic higness and that's not eve-" He cut himself off bespite the fury glowing like coals in his eyes as Gwen appeared besie them once more.

"Sorry, sorry, that was important, the textile delivery is going to be late...is everyhing okay?" Gwen looked between them both worriedly, and Arthur's faced morphed into a charming smile which he turned to her. Merlin continuted to glower.

"Everything is perfect Gwen, thank ou so much for letting me in to such a special place" Gwen blushed at his praise and bright smile and Merlin surpressed a snarl.

"Now I really must be going, we'll be in touch about the endorsement but uh, I have a good feeling" Arthur gave her a quick wink and Merlin through she might collapse from the bloosrush she was blushing so hard. Arthur's henchmen swooped down and escorted him away and to the dock without so much of a backward glance at Merlin. The sleek royal cruiser disengaged swiftly and with a roar of the propulsion jest it was gone, leaving behind a slowly settling dust cloud. Gwen had settled as well, and she fixed Merlin with a steely look that said she was seriously unimpressed.

"What?" He said trying to shrug off her glare, but it made him squirm uncomrtoabley.

"What?" Merlin repeated but Gwen only turned her back with a roll of her eyes and left him alone beneath the setting and rising suns.


	2. Chapter 2

The Kings homes planet of Camelot sat in the heart of the Albian Nebula. It was known throughout galaxies for its idyllic climate- always summer, except for its short winter through the month of Samhain, which tended to cover the plant in picturesqeue layers of icy snow. The planet was covering in a rolling landscapre of beautiful forests; lakes and misty peaked mountians that soured about the villages and towns. It was a plac ethat people came to for a quiet life and its citizens lived well and in harmony with each other, untouched by the troubles of all of the other galaxies beyond Albian's respected borders. Above the trees levitated a large white castle, anchored to the ground by hydrolyrics. In this castle, sat the Nebula's King; famous for his iron fist and desire for peace- the man was a enigma.

Uther's empire had not been inherited: he had won it in his youngers years from the grasp of poverty and treachery, and an aging, greedy king who couldn't see any further than the end of his own nose. He had fought long and hard, not only to release the galaxy from th grasp of such a cruel man, but also bring peace to the planets therein, and to make peace with the neighobouring territories: Escetia, Mercia, and beyond. Unfortunately, Uther inherited a war with these places, and peace seemed like a distant dream. He looked at the gilded image of Ygraine on his desk; it had been her dream, and he had been glad to carry it forward for her, but the times were changing and 'peace' was starting to mean something different.

Aeons ago, small factions of humans who had been exposed to radiation from the dward planet Ogof Grisial started to display...powers. They could move objects without touching them, make things appear and disappear, and cast illusions to warp your mind into seeing whatever they wanted. Common people called it magic. As time passed, they bred, sharing their poisonous powers and becoming stronger with each generation until rumour came to Uther of a power so great it could uproot everything he had ever fought for. So he did the only thing a king at War could do. He destroyed it. And nothing happened. People called it collateral damage or spoke of rebels, and Uther saw a chance to extinguish a growing threat. With his own fleet of privateers who wore no royal colours noe royal sigil, Uther removed the alien threat one planet; one city; one village at a time.

He had risen to greatness, fighting every step of the way, and he expectd the same of his son.

He shook his head. Arthur was too soft, had been too sheltered at Ygraine's request. This latest escapade was evidence that he needed to learn responsibility. The king now sat at his desk, idly flicking through the SpaceNet it's thin transparent bulk catting a blue light across his face as he unfolded it, he glanced at his watch, checking the time and sighed in impatience. Arthur was late. As ususal. Uther had requested meeting with his son more than an hour ago after having seen the bill that his son and his girlfriend: Sophia, had managed to rack up at the most expensive bar in the entire nebula the night before. Photos of the two of them were splashed across the news, religating the stories of Athru's charity work to brief mentions and thumbnail portraits of his son's careing face bent over a small child. Uther sighed. His son was a public relations nightmare.

Eventually, Arthur swaggered in through the automatic door with a quite shoosh.

"Father, you wanted to see me?" he asked, reclining in one of Uther's chairs plush leather chairs. Real leather was hard to come by, and so that made it be very expensive. He looked pale with deep dags under his eyes, and although he spoke confidently, Uther could tell, his son was masking a hangouver.

"Arthur. Have you seen this?" he pulled up a less-than-flattering photo of his son, Sophia hanging off his arm, from the bar last night.

"Not my best angel" Arthur jokes.

"There's nothing about your visit to that freaking refugee camp! It is all about you getting drunk with Sophia. Do you think I send you there for fun?" Uther spat stormingly.

"I don't think refugee camps are meant to be fun father." Arthur replied with the smirk wipped off of his face.

"But they are ment to make you look good!" Uther shouted slamming his palm on the disk. Arthur scoffed and muttered:

"And show support to our least fortunate constutuants but who cares about that..." which Uther ignored.

"Son you are royalty. And as such you have responsibilities. You're too old to be out drinking with your flozies. It's time you became a vespectable man!" Uther continued.

"I'm respegtabale enough." Countered Arthur.

"You crashed your spacecraft last niught!" roared the King. Arthur looked confused.

"No-one got hurt. And I can buy another. That's what the taxes are for." Arthur raisoned. Uther went purple in the face.

"Taxes insure the security of everone in our realm they are not for your...you...toys!" He exploded with spit flyigng from his mouth as he shouted. Arthur rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Fine. I will pay for it myself."

"I wouldn't bother." Uther said with a smirk and Arthur frowned narrowly in confusig.

"Why? I need a craft, I can't be stuck here." Arthur said shardly and Uther's grin widened.

"Don't worry, son, you'll no be stuck here." He said. Arthur gulped. He had seen that look on his father's face directed at errant courtiers, but never himself, and it never bodied well.

"You'll be going back to Tintgel in two days time for a month to learn some responsibiilty, you'll be king of the Nebula one day Arthur, you can't act like this then." Uther explinaed decisievely. Arthur gapped at him opening and closing his mouth like a stareater.

"Why? No!" He finally sputtered out. The king did not look impressed, but Arthur continued headless:

"I have a gala this weekend, next weekend there's a benefit for my chairity so I need to be there, after that I promised to take Sophs on a ski trip to Jupiter 2 and you know she'll get so sulky id I don't do it-" Arthur was cut off, by his father.

"I do not care fot your frivollites will go to Tingatel. Morgana will take over your duties in your absense." Uther said firmly with a face like the thunder storms of CRT1, a large black volcannic planet on the border with the Mercian Neubla, where thunder raged and Lave flew contasly.

"Morgana! She will take ant oppurtunity to embarrass me in the most public way she can!" Arthur shreiked, thought he would deny his voice ever went that high.

"That is enough!" Uther slammed his hands on the dask in front of him and stoodup towering over Arthur who pressed his lips into a tight line, looking equally as angry as his father oppostite him did.

"I am your King! My word is final. You will stop making a mockery of the Pendragon name! You will show respect for the galactic empire I am uniting and its royal house." Uther retoted as he swept out of the throne room with a slam of the door.

The suns still burnt down on the dessert of Tintagel and the people who inhabited there. Merlin was sitting in the main office of the camp processing the records of more orphans; his work occusaionally interrupted by someone dropping by to ask a question or a particularly persistent cat demanding attention. Merlin had never given a thought too question the cats, but according to Gwen, their presence was unnatural, and had only started at about the time Merlin had arrived. He chocked it up to one of the peciliatitires of his powerful magic and thought little of it now, besides, the animals were cute and kept away the pests like the wildoren, a type of giant baby rat that existend on this planet. Just as he was finishing up, the satellite phone on his deask gave a brittle twill. Merlin hoped this didn't mean more people would be arriving they were already pushed to breaking point despite the royal endorsement taking effect recently since Arthur's visit. He picked it up.

"Hello" he answered it. A tinny voice was on the line, a sure sign of an intergalactic call from another planet. This peeked Merlins interest, most of their calls came from spcaeships looking to unload there desperate cargo.

"Mr Emrys. I am Catherine the Galactic Highness's King Uther Pendragon of the Camelot Nebula's Royal secretary." Came the reply.

"Okay?" Said Merlin. He paused unimpressed and waiting for her to continue. She did so.

"I am calling to arrange the arrival of Prince Arthur." She continued.

Merlin scoffed.

"You're a bit late, your royal space highness has already been. Or did he not get the right photo of him doting on some poor children and need more photos to distract from his drunken antics?" He answered. Catherine cleared her throat.

"His majesty will be returning to your camp. He has expressed a desire to return and help out the most needy for a period of time." She explained. Merlin grew suspicious. He narrowed his eyes at her down the phone.

"...How long?" he asked.

"A month. His Highness is very invested in his charitable works: he's a very generous man" Answered Cathrine professionally. Merlin could here her smitten undertones. Merling's heart sank threw the floor.

"Please insure appropriate accommodations are provided, the Prince will of course be accompannied by a mameber of his security team who will be staying with him during his stay." She continued saying.

"_Of course_ he will" Merlin muttered quietly under his bredth, but Caroline apparent did not hear him, or chose to ignore him.

"I assume this isn't a request I can say no to?" he asked hopefully, without too much hope.

"He'll arrive in wo days time on Wednesday!" replied Catherine with a fake smile in her voice. Merlin sighed as there was a click and the line disconnected and he was left listening to the faint hum of radiation that permeatered the line on all intergalactic sat phone calls.

"My Wednesday, or your Wednesday?" Merlin asked aloud, replied to only by the same hiss of radiation down the sat phone link. He sighed. It was going to be a long month.


	3. Chapter 3

Merlin has a strange feeling of day ja vu as he stood beside the dock where the Prince's sleek single pilot craft rested. Except, he reminded himself, this is not just a photo oppurtuinty and then he'll leave us alone. This is the first day of the longest month of his life. Merlin siged as the craft door hissed open and Arthur emerged, golden hair blazing as the brighter of the two suns peaked over the horizon covering the land in golden light and gilding everything it touched. It caught the minute fibres of Arthurs suit and Merlin almost scowled as he _glowed_ before descending the steps to the shade of the dock. _Stupid traitorous sun making him look like some kind of saint_ Merlin thought bitterly. He definitely did not think _A very handsome saint_ and even if he did there was no denying the Prince's looks - girls boys and others all across the galaxy had his posters plastered on their bedroom walls and tucked into their lockers and diaries.

Arthur was followed through the door by his bodyguard - Merlin struggled to remember his name. Lee or something. The prince approached Gwen with a polite smile and Merlin forced his face into a passive mask. The best he could hope for was to avoid Arthur as much as possible, and be civil. Merling could do civil.

"Ms Nevere, thank you so much for allowing me to work with you" Arthur said with a winning smile and a handshake of Gwen's hand. Gwen bobbed an awkward half-curtsey and blush furiously.

"Oh please, call me Gwen. It's such an honour to have you. I mean for you to be be here. I - this is Merlin! Which you know because he was here last time..." She trailed off and pressed her lips together as if to force herself to stop babbling. Arthur's smile did not faulter as her turned to Merlin to shake his hand also. Unecessarily, Merlin found this jarring. He'd been fuming about the prince's presense here since before he'd ever set foot on terra firma, and he was here pretending Merlin had shouted in his face or called him an arrogant prat? A petty streak ignnited in Merlin's mind.

"Your royal space highness." He said confidently meeting Arthur's eyes, and smirked as the Public Smile across his face flickered. He tried not to notice Gwen glaring at him out he corner of his eye.

"Would you like to see your accomodations for the moth? Lance here will show...your compation where to go." Lance gave the prince a bow-nod. He was the head of security for the camp - an unfortunately required position which at least gave Gwen the oppurtunity to see her husband as much and as often as she could. He was a dark-hairred man with olive skin and kind, deep brown eyes that Gwen often said she could melt into like chocolate. He was outfitted the the security team uniform - though calling it a uniform was being a bit generous. Cargo pants, black long sleeved top, dessert scarf and whatever stab vest fitted out of a selection that had been either donated, purchased, or however else things turned up here.

"This is Lancelot," Merlin said, gesturing towards the man.

"Your majesty." Said Lancelot, reverendly with a slight bow. Gwen smiled adoringly at her husband, his kind dark brown eyes fixed on the prince.

"And this is Arthur's personal guard… um…" Merlin gestured at Leon and flailed with an apologetic grin and arm at Leon.

"Leon." Leon provided. Stepping forward and shaking Lancelot's hand with his gloved one.

"It's an honour to meet you. While here, you'll be staying with me, or in my barrack room, at least." Lancelot explained.

"You don't live with your good wife?" Arthur questioned with a confused expression.

"We stay together when we can, sire, but our rolls are very different. The cause is better served with us being where we are needed." Lancelot explained. Gwen nodded along in agreement. ,The three of them trekked to the barranks where Arthur's kind faced and gentle haired bodyguard would be staying for the duration. Merlin pirately thought that a bodyguard would be staying closer to the body he should be guarding, but paid it no mind. Arthir was unlikely to irritate anyone enough to attack him when asleep, Merlin reasoned.

"It's very…cosy." Merlin was torn between laughing at the badly disguised horror on Arthur's face at his small room and raising in anger at how privlidged and pompous he was. Arthur pulled phone out of his insie suit jacket pocket and frowned at the bright screen. He glanced up and met Merlin's eyes.

"Do you get signal here?" Merlin did laugh then, or sort of chocked slightly in amazement.

"Signal? This is a refugee camp on a planet that has no secure trading post and no surface water. Why in the void of space would anyone put signal here?" Arthur frowned harder.

"You have a phone!" He said accusingly. Merlin unclipped the chunky gadhet from his belt and wiggled it.

"Satellite phone. We can only use it when the satellite's in rage or someone _important enough _bounces us a connection" He said poniontly. Arthur visibly blanched.

"You mean I can't use my phone...at all? I can't text...what if someone needs to call me?" he asked desperately. Merlin shrugged, he was rather enjoying this.

"The palace can bounce a signal. We have a timetable for when the satellite comes back in range." Merlin said nanchalantly.

"When's that?" Merlin saw hope flicker in the prince's eyes...

"About three weeks." ...and die.

"Three weeks!" Arthur sqwarked and sat heavily on the - Merlin's - bed, flopping back and staring agassed at the ceiling.

"Sophia is going to kill me." Merlin blinked at him. His suit jacket was going toget all wrinkled.

"Who's Shophia?" he asked.

"My girlfriend" Arthur told the ceiling.

"Oh." Merlin wasn't sure why he asked. There was a breif pause.

"I'll uh. Be going then. Come find Gwen or me when you're ready, I guess." Arthur didn't reply, so Merlin just nodded to himself and left, shutting the door behind him.

Arthur did not emerge for the rest of the day, sending Merlin into a futile tonado of rage and even causing Gwen to give a slight frown and a "Oh." before she turned the frown on Merlin, who was slamming storage crates around the small warehouse with far more force than was necessary for a man looking for tweezers at planetry midnight.

"I don't know whay you're so mad about this Merlin. He probably wants to rest. It's a long journey from Camelot and our atmosphere isn't what he's used to" She said watching him with crossed arms.

"Don't make excuses for him Gwen, he's here as punishment and he's sulking like a child. If we have to keep operating without him I'd rather he wasn't here at all, taking up resources. Why do we have so much dried mango?" He turned to wave a silver packet at her and she shrugged.

"Gwaine said it was 'on sale', whatever that means to him" she replied making air quotes with her fingers when she said 'on sale'. Merlin sighed and tossed it back into the crate full of identical packets.

"Hopefully next time he brings us something more useful." Merlin expressed.

"Last we heard from him, he should be here in three weeks. We can manage until then." Gwen reassured.

"As long as there's no outbreaks, riot, or who knows what else." Merlin sighed. Gwen rested her hand on Merlin's shoulder in concern and he gave her a week smile. He looked exhausted.

"You should get some rest" Merlin shook his head and turned to survey the warehouse.

"Nah, I need to get this sorted. You go though. I'm sure Lance will be glad to see you." Vwen nodded and left, giving his shoulder a quick squeeze before she left. Merlin waited until the door clicked shut behind her and made his way to the back of the warehouse where there collection of mismatched blankets were kept, freshly cleaned. They might not be the most luxous, but they were enough. He took a pile and arranged them into a bed on the floor, turned off the light with a flash of his eyes, and tried to get comfortable.

He couldn't stop the swirling nebula os thoughts in his mind, taking over and clouding his thoughts like a storm. His magic was the only thing providing the camp with water - Tintagel had no surface water, and the groundwater was tainted and revolting. Though not strictly poisoinus, it had an oily texture and tasted like paint. Merlin could clarify it with very little effort with his magic, allowing everyone to have ample ater to drink and use - hardly a luxury, but it was something he could give freely to these people to make these peoples lives a tiny bit better.

With Arthur here he had no time, they were surviving on the bottled water the Albian releif provided last time they brought supplie - well over 2 sun cycles ago. He sighed and turned over, tryng to ger comfortable on the concrete floor. Eventually he fell into a fitful sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

After the first two weeks of apparently getting under Merlin's feet and arguing with him about almost everything he did, Arthur had been assigned kitchen duty, which mostly consisted of asking the kitchen staff how he could help and 'overseeing', or staning around feeling like a bit of a plank while they all got on with the jobs they knew how to do. All in all it had been an uneventful lunch, and now he was watching as Merlin bustled into the kitchen to check inventory and reassign anyone who was working for the whole day. Arther was leaning against a kitchen counter as he watched Merlin's wirey form. Merlin looked exhausted, with dark bags under his blue eyes, that did nothing to diminish his bright smile. Arthur's heart squirmed with emotion.

"Merlin works hard." Said Arthur to no-one in particular.

"He does," replied Sefa, one of the kitchen workers.

"Since I have been here I have bearly seen him sleep. He doesn't ever seem to stop. It's incredible how much he can get done in a day! Even in my father's large castle, I have never seen anyone work so hard and without break!" he exclaimed, watching Merlin still as the man with hair as dark as outer space walked out of the canteen.

"I woulnd't say completely without a break." Smiled Sefa.

"What do you mean?" asked Arthur.

"I think he's off to mest his break now." She grinned suggestingly. Arthur swallowed hard and, without further comment, followed in the direction that Merlin had just walked out, creeping through the winding camp after Merlin to the space docks of the camp.

Merlin gave a long suffering sigh and turned around.

"You can stop hiding, I know you're there!" he called to the Prince. Arthiur was amazed. He had spent time training with his father's army and had learnt his stealthy skills from them, he should have been impossible to detect when tracking someone. The suns reflected and Merlin's eyes flashed gold in the light, but was gone as soon as it appeared.

"Who's that?" He asked, searching the shi's side for a name or icon that would tell him who it belonged to, or at least how it was aligned. It didn't look like an Albian Relief ship, but then; he'd never been much involved in the shipping and supply side of any of his charities. He glanced back at Merlin when he got no response and saw he was thight lipped and scowling, arms folded acrossed his chest. Arthur looked back to the ship in alarm fractically trying to remember the last time he saw Leon and curseing this Helish planet in the back end of the void with _no freaking signal_.

"Say _nothing._" Merlin said and gave him a meaningfull look.

Arthur watched uncertainly as the ship decsended into the dock in a cloud of kicked up desert dust which made him glad for his scarf and moored. Out of the brightness of the sky Arthur could see the mottled charcole greys of the ships outside dented with schorch marks and age. The name on the side in thick black text read _Caerleon._ Suddeny the door opened with a hiss and a thunk as it slid to the side, and a man emerged.

His hair was brown and longer than was descent, Arthur noticed, and it was mostly covered by a red bandana, his dark eyes glittered from their sockets and lit up at seeing Merlin. He wore tight black trousers that left little to the imagination and a flowing white shirt that billowed gentle in the desert breezer, it was unbuttoned undecently low and showed a suggestion of strong lean muscles as well as a smattering of dark hairs. Stubble lined his jaw and he walked forward in his black boots with a confident swagger towards Merlin, his long black coat swishing behind him. At his side hung a scabbard which held a cutlass, made of chains, rusted slightly, but still would clearly be deadly when deployed to lock together to form a long curved blade. Merlin was still scowling at Arthur's uninvited and unexpected presence, and this man wore a scowl as ferocious as the stormy skies of the planet Nox Eterna.

Arthur glanced between the two dark haired men nervously.

"You're early." Merlin said. There was a tert pause, then the other man broke into a wide grin.

"It wouldn't do to be predictable now would it?" he replied with a slight accent that Arthur couldn't immadeitatley place. To his surprise, Merlin's face broke into a matching grin, crinkling around his eyes that glittered in the bright sun with joy.

"It's good to see you Gwaine. Have you brought us the package?" asked Merlin, trying to be covert as he jumped straight to business.

"Have I? Merlin, you should see the size of the package I have for you." Gwaine replied with a cheeky grin. Arthur felt uncomfortable for a reason he couldn't quite name as Merlin rolled his eyes with a resigned smile.

"Gwaine! The med supplies?" asked Merlin more strictly. Gwaine pouted exaggeratedly.

"Oh Merlin, you know I'd bring you anything! Here- freshly repurposed from Gendreth by my own fair hands" He replied with a rougish wink at Arthur who blinked in surprised until he caught up to what had been said.

"..? but that's a barracks…" He trailed off frowny as Merlin gave him the same meainginfull look at before.

"And that's where all the best supplies are to be found! Your father sure knows how to support the war effort princess." He looked back t Merlin and hocked a thumb over hi shoulder.

"I'll unload and then we can talk." Merlin nodded once and Gwaine turned with a flourish of his long coat and walked back to his ship. Realisation slowly dawned on Arthur's concious.

"Merlin! He's a pirate!" Arthur hissed when Gwaine was out of earsgot: or so he thought, but the rakish man turned and gave him a wink that suggested perhaps he had heard. Merlin rollee his eyes and glowered at Arthur.

"Well pointed-out, Prince Obvious." He hadnt turned to look ar Arthur.

"This place runs on piracy? What is wrong with you!" Arthur was furious, to exploit people so desperate in a situation all for the benefit of thieves and bringands?

"Would you rather we let everyone starve? Suffer slowly of disease?" Merlin did ten to him now, the dark circles under his eyes accentuating the rage that swirled in them. Arthur threw his hands up in the air in exaggeration.

"Use the relief you get! You're a registered Albian charity, we send relief every month! Have you morals?" Arthur saw a flicker of hurt in Merlins eyes before the mealstorm of anger returned.

"How _dare_ you. Your releaif covers a _quarter_ of what we need. What about everyone else? What about our hononoured guest the space prince come here to show everyone how _caring_ he is? You take my bed, you take our food without a hint of gratitude, always complaining how you wish you weren't here, guess what its be so much easier for everyone if you weren't!" Merlins hands were tight fists by his side and he glared hard at the blonde prince. Arthur did not reflect his furure his face had become slack and a small crease had appeared between his eyebrows. There was a pause.

"I took your bed?" Arthur's voice semmed quiet after Merlin's rant and took the solar wind out of Merlin's sails very quickly.

"What?" He frowned and struggled to keep up with the sudden change in conversation.

"I took your bed! You can have it back. Where have you been sleeping?" Arthur sounded accusing and Merlin blinked in surprise at the sudden swap from him being angry apparently Arthur being andgry. Merlin scowled and tried to take back the moral high ground.

"Absolutely not and that is none of your buseness! Or how this camp is run, or supplied, or anyting! We do what we can do make sure the people here suffer as little as possible after they were made homless...planetless! In your father's war!" now they were both angry, leaning in tensely and scowling at eachother, eyes locked in a silent battle fo will.

"I'll have you know-" Arthut started haughtily.

"Am I interrupting something lads?" Gwaine's accented voice cut through the tension like a knife. His lazy grin was bellied by the way his dark eyes darted between the pair, calculatingly. Merlin let out a quick shot of breath as if to deflate his anger and looked away from Arthur smiled brightly at Gwaine.

"His galactic highness is telling me about the Albian Charity Releif Scheme." Merlin said. Gwaine frowned.

"But you know about that" he pointed out.

"Yes! Yes I do. What have you got for me today, then?" Merlin said and held a hand out to guide Gwaine over to the storage crates stacked next to his ship, leaving Arthur behind with a confusion of emotions spagning across his face.

"Oh have I got some treats for you my friend! We've got antibiotics, we've got antibacterials..." Gwaine's voices faded away as the walked away from Arthur. He frowned at their retreating backs. How could Merlin invite a pirate to support this place? The Albian Releif was a generous care package he knew that, and his bristled at the suggestion that his house wasn't doing as much as they could. And why had Merlin given up his bed for Arthur? Was he sleeping in the barracks? In a tent? Gods forbid outdoors? Arthur turned away from the site of the two dark hair men bent over crates shifting through the contents. He would do something about this. He would do...something.

Arthur turned on his heel and stalked off, determined to find a solution to the Merlin sleeping problem, and to ignore the propriety hand Gwaine had laid on Merlin's fourarm as the pair had moved on to discussing the bandages Gwaine had brought. His emotions were confused by the sudden appearance of the pirate, and the staggering realisation that Merlin, a man who seemed almost unable to tolerate him, had given up his bed, so Arthur would have a passably comfortable place to sleep, had him humbled. Despite Merlin's frostiness with Arthur, his heart was as warm as the Tintagel dessert summers.

Merlin trudged back to his office slowly. Gwaine's visits usually left him with happiness in his heart, especially when, as now, the man agreed to stay a few days to recharge his ship, but this time concern burned through him. Arthur had reacted so strongly to Gwaine's piracy that Merlin was concerned he would be unable to keep the secret. The man was stealing from his father, after all, and despite the fact that few people in the camp knew the true origin of many of their supplies, the larsony still put the entire refugee camp at risk.

Merlin approached his office and frowned - thought the tin door provided little soundprrofing he could hear a sort of...hissing through the door. He opend the door acautiostly, unsure what he would find only to see Arthur bent over a sofa that had never been there before, shooing the cats which kept trying to claim it as their own. He shot up when Merlin came in and turned around, looking for al of space like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't.

He stopped short. He blinked twice, but the scene in front of him had not changed.

"Merlin!" Arthur nearly tripped over his feet turnng around in the tiny amount of floorspace left. Merlin frowned in alarm.

"Arthur. What are you doing?" Merlin asked.

In the middle of the room stood High Space Highness, Prince of the Albian Nebula, wearing a wide and dopey grin. Despite himself, Merlin's heart warmed slightly at his proud expression. The man in question, Arthur, stood next to a slightly battered sofa, which was clearly intended as a sleeping space for Merlin, made up with a blanket and pillow in which slept a black and white kitten.

"Well. I got you a sofa." Arthur said, a red blush gradually stainting his neck and cheeks as he looked awkwardly at the floor.

"I see that." Merlin replied, still very unclear on what was happening. There was a pause then Arthur took a deep breath.

"It's the best I could do. I couldn't fit in a bed and this is the only building with cetral control and you wouldn't let me give you your room beck and also Leon said I couldn't so…" Arthur reeled of, staring very hard at the floor near Merlin's feet, or the wall behind Merlin's left ear, or out the window at the dusty Tintagel twilight, but not at any point actually looking at Merlin. Merlin, for his part, opened and shut his mouth like a stareater, and looked from the Prince to the sofa and back again, sompletely at a loss.

"I-" he started then trailed off. shutting his mouth with a snap. There was a hevy silence until:

"…Thanks." Arthur said, finally glancing at Merlin with a experionless face, before leaving the room and shutting the door with a soft click.

"What…" Merlin asked the empty room, astrounded. His brain swirled in absolute confusion at Arthur's ability to be an utter prat, a charming prince, and this new, shy, humbled and definitely-not-adorable attitude. But all of that could be dealt with later, because Merlin was very tired and that sofa looked incredibly a lot more comfortable than the floor. He crashed into the soft pillows and was asleep in less than a minute.


	5. Chapter 5

Merlin woke up in the early hours of the morning, the moon still shined in the sky. He was more refreshed than he had been in a long while and he stretches on his sofa. Sighing a little, he pulled himself from where he was nestled and began to sneak out to start his work for the day.

Arthur, in his room off of Merlin's office, was woken up by a soft clattering just moments later. It seemed even when Merlin was trying to be mysterious and stealthy, he was still uselessly clumsy. Arthur heaved a gentle sigh and dug himself out of bed. He was sure Merlin was off to get himself in trouble, if his limited experience of the youthful charity worker was anything to go by.

Arthur followed Merlin silently in the milky moonlight through the camp to the water stores that had gone down even in the short time Arthur had been at the camp. He furrowed his brow a little, confused at why Merlin would be headed there at this time in the night. He stood outside as Merlin went in, unsure how to act, and having had no plan other than to follow the other man. Just moments later, however, Merlin left the stores, and headed off into the camp, glancing in the window as he went by, thy prince now noticed these were ful to the brim with crysstaline clear water. He gasped, causing Merlin to turn around in front of him.

"Do you make a habit of folowing people?" He asked with a raised eye that would have rivalled Gaius.

"No. I'm doing something else than you." Arthur blushed brilliantly in the dark, skin illuminating red in the moonlight, embarrassed at being caught again.

"Okay, what are you doing?" asked Merlin challingeingly

"...Going for a walk. At night. A night walk." Said Arthur: unconvincingly. His tone imperious.

"Well. I'm also going for a walk!" Merlin replied too quickly for it to be the truth, the prince failed to notice.

"We can both walk! There is enough night fo both of us to walk in!" he said with an eye roll, as though it were the most obvious thing in the nebula.

"...Fine. We should walk together though. For protection." Merlin answered, thinking of the legends of sand beasts that he had not quite outgrown.

The pair walked together in a silence that grew more awkward as it lengthened. Finally, Merlin, always chatty by his nature, could stand it now longer.

"...So you're very tanned." He said, not looking at Arthur but instead speaking the words into the air.

"You noticed that?" asked Arthur, surprosed. Almost everyone on this planet had a tan of some form, except the man who stood next to him, whose milky skin Arthur had not let himself think of too long.

"Yes I did. I notice things." Replied Merling. _About you, very specifically_ Merlin brain supplied unhelpfully.

The pair lapsed into silence again. This was even more awkward that the last one. Merlin's thoughts ran to how the man at his side probably got the tan at some luxury villa at the heart of Albian, running servants ragged while he basked in the golden sun and his own glory, gilded by the light that highlights the curves of his shoulders and the planes of his torso. Merlin shook his head to shake the image out of his mind; now was not the time to become a gibbering fanboy.

"I was working with the Intergalactic Royal Animal Protection Society over the summer. The horse bit. They rescue horses from illegal racing rings and give them a good retiemenet. I love animals, especially horsed, I grew up riding them. And animal loves me." He gushed suddenly, a passion for horses burned in his eyes and a bright grin on his face that couldn't be faked. Merlin struggled to not find it adorable, especially as Arthur's face lit up with a boyish smile as he talked about his youth.

"The cats don't like you" He pointed out cheekily, and Arthur turned the smale on him and screwed up his nose.

"..Except cats. The feeling's mutual." Merlin couldn't help but laugh, smothering a hand over his mouth when it rang out through the clear night air far louder than he'd intended. After that the silence they endured was compainionable, neither felt forced to break it and they walked steadily out beyond the camp, shoulders and arms brushing occasionally.

The pair continued on through the night, shoulders brushing together in their closeness as Arthur regaled Merlin with unregal stories of his time with the horses. Every time their eyes met, Merlin's stomach flipped and danced in a way he tried not to think about oo much. Finally, the two came to a stop near the space docks. Arthur stepped close to Merlin and the pair starred at each other, momentarily lost in the moment. Merlin opened his mouth to speak. Just then a cat pounced on Arthur's shoe.

"Toby!" called a voice through the darkness. Arthur growned as he recognised the accent. Sure enough, Gwaine appeared behind the cat, scooping him into his arms.

"What have I told you about attacking people? Especially the Space Princess." he chided the cat softly. Merlin grinned widely as Gwaine's attention turned to him.

"Up to no good?" Merlin asked joikingly.

"I'm not the one skulking through the night with strange men." Gwaine answered with a salacious look.

"It's not what it looks like!" blurted Arthur, stepping away from Merlin.

"I should hope not. Merlin always turns down my offers of romantic strolls." Gwain grinned back as he stepped closer, so Merlin could stroke Toby's head. The cat closed his eyes and purred in satisfaction, and Arthur was definitely not jealous of a cat for getting such easy and pleasing attention from Merlin. Not at all.

"I've heard all about you and your romantic strolls. About the string of broken hearts behind you, and your having a bed in every port, without much care whose it is." Huffed Arthur, unable to contain himself, but unsure why. Gwaine grinned wider and raised an eyebrow, clearly amused at his reputation. He glanced at Merlin, who was also trying to contain his smile.

"Really? Is filling Merlin's bed preferable, then? I'll have to try it some time?" replied Gwaine with a smirk, barely looking at Arthur as the other two fussed the cat. He scowled and was glad their attnetion was elsewhere and the firist of the suns had not yet broken the horizon as he felt the heat rise in his face. Gwaine put his on the back foot, he shouldn't feel this awkward around a criminal, he was the _prince _of _space_ for Gods' sake. Flustered Arthur looked at his wrist.

"Right, well, I should be getting back. Breakfast will be on soon." He nodded firly at them both, Gwaine still cooing over the cat and paying Arthur exactly no attention and Merlin frowning at him while absently stroking the cat.

"Arthur…" Merlin started.

"See you later!" Arthur said with false cheer and turned precisely on his heel to walk back to the camp.

"...Breakfast isn't for two hours." Merlin finished to himself, watching the prince's retreating back. The sun had just crested the horizon and the rays hit arthurs hair causing it to shine burnished gold. Merlin sighed.

"Also he wasn't wearing a watch." Gwaine said helpfully. Merlin glared at him and he finally looked up from Toby to shot him a cheeky grin.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He askekd.

"Nope. I've got all the time in the world" Gwaine replied with an easy smile. Merlin rolled his eyes and stalked off, veering left when he realised he was following Arthur's path. Gwaine watched him go and shook his head.

"They're a pair of idiots, aren't they Tobes?" Gwaine said to the cat.

The cat mewled in agreement as Gwaine headed off towards the food stores to pilfer him a nice piece of fish.

The Tintagel days ticked by on the desert planet, and Arthur felt himself getting into the swing of the charity. Merlin was looking perkier for spending his nights sleeping on the sofa, actually getting time to rest, although he still never seemed to take a break from his work, he was warmer with Atrhur.

One day, soon after Gwaine's departure, the pair were walking through the camp late in the evening, heading back to the main offices after a long day of helping a group of new arrivals settle in. Suddenly, Arthur was pulled from his tired reverie by furious shouting of teenaged boys. The two of them, Merlin and Arthur both, ran towards the noise. As they rounded the corner, they came upon a gang of around twenty youths surrounding two other boys who were locked in a fight. Without thought, Arthur dove into the fray, pulling the two boys off each other with what Merlin couldn't help but notice was very impressive strangth.

"Stop this now!" Arthur ordered, every part the prince. And the chaos died down. The boys were silent in awe of Arthur's natural authority as he continued:

"I am not going to catch you fighting again. Merlin has build this camp as a refuge from thoughtless violence and you need to understand that. I expect you all back here at dawn tomorrow!" The boys looked humbled even as butterflied of affection fluttered through Merlin's veins: excited at how Arthur understood his cause and belived in it too.

"And, I expect you all to apologise to Mr Emrys!" Arthur barked, with a twinkle in his eye, glancing to Merlin, who smiled in pride.

"Sorry Mr Emrys." Chorused the chastised boys together before they were dismissed with a lazy wave of Arthur's hand.

"You didn't need to do that, you know" smiled Merlin as he walked up to Arthur, meaning the apology.

"But it made you smile," pointed out Arthur.

"What are you going to do to them at dawn?" Merling queried.

"Just wait and see." Arthur smilled back broadly.

The next morning broke in glorious sunshine and, as Merlin rolled off his soda, he noticed that the door leading to Arthur's room was slightly open and the bed empty, and made Merlin noticed with a light surprise. Intreeged he hurried out of his small office and towards the space where the boys had been fighting the night before. Amazed, as he ran, he heard peels of laughter being carried on the early morning wind.

Approaching the site, he saw the gang of boys from the night before, along with quite a few others, engaged in a spaceball match. One of the two boys from the fight the night before was being helped to his feet by the other, after a tackle and Arthur was stood at the side of the pitch, smile wide, clapping his hands and shouting words of encouragement and help to both teams. Merlin felt his insides lurch again with dangerous affection.

Just then, Arthur turned around and saw him, beaming wider than Merlin thought possible as he guestured for the slight man to join him on the sidelines. Merlin sidled up to him as Arthur started to talk.

"What do you think? I thought if we could push the aggression and energy into something else, it would solve the problem… I'm going to set up a league." He said nervously.

"I think it's wonderful." Said Merlin, with a smile.

"I'm glad you like it," replied Arthur, calmer now.

"You know, you just keep surprising me." Responded Merlin, looking at the prince with pure affection.

"I am a man of many talents. Oi! Cedric! Stop that!" He offered Merlin a quick smile and ran back onto the pitch, glaring at a rattish boy who had been trying to cheat while he was distracted. Merlin watched him go, admiring the movement of his muscular calves for a moment before he turned away and sighed to himself. It had been a long month.


	6. Chapter 6

"Are you coming?" Gwen appeared of of nowhere on the other side of Merlin's desk and startled him so much his face almost crashed into the desk top when the hand that was propping it up lurched out from beneath him.

"Gwen! Gods! What! What?"

"Are. You. Coming. Out?" Gwen repeated slowly with a grin, crawling her fingers towards him on the desk with each word.

"Where?" Merlin stared at her wide eyed and cluless trying to remember why they were supposed to be going out anywhere. Gwen stared back like she could force him to remembebr by force of Will alone.

"Drinks. Arthur's last night. Everyone is coming." Merlin scrunched up his face as a half remembered conversation to that affect came back to him suddenly.

"Right! Yes. I remember. Sure." He nodded at her and she raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure? Because that's exactly what you said when we arranged it." Merlin scrunched up his nose.

"...I just need to finish this one-" He pointed nervously to the computer screen, but she cut him firmly off.

"Merlin!" Gwen scolded, hands on hips.

"I promise! I'll finish this and I'll be right there!" Gwen gave him a peircing look like she could see into his soul, and Merlin tried to think about something innocent just in case.

"Fine. I will come and find you if you take too long!" Merlin sighed in relif and grinned at her.

"Agreed." With that Gwen back out of the room - expertly, on account of the boxes and files stacked everywhere - pointing two fingers to her eyes then to him to show she would be watching him. The door shut behind her and Merlin turned back to his screen. He surveyed the 6 month forecast critically: the season would change soon, not that that meant different weather, but the algal swarm would be coming and they'd been more breathe masks just in case, he tapped the item to add to Gwaine's list and flicked back to the satellite schedule, they'd have signal again in 18 days, but he was expecting to hear from Camelot before then... the door open and shut again, but Merlin didn't look up.

"I told you Gwen, I'm coming" He mumbled, his voice muffled but the hand propping up his chin.

"Swing and a miss" Merlin glanced up at the reply from a decidedly male voice and saw Arthur drop onto his sofa. He sat in the middle with his arms stretched across the back, the longsleeved black top he'd taken to wearing pulled tight across his broad chest and riding up slightly to show a slither of skin which Merlin very pointedly did not look at.

"Oh. You're supposed to be at the social." Merlin accused, frowning and refusing to break eyecontact. Arthur was literally the guest of honour and he was hiding out in the office on a sofa covered in cat hair. He just shrugged though, and Merlin had to avert his eyes when his shirt rode up even further.

"I showed my face. I don't really want to...be a distraction" he waved his hand in the air in thought. Merlin frowned at him again.

"They are literally celebrating you. That is the entire point of them going out." He said. Arthur pressed his lips together in a thin line and gazed out the window to his left.

"I know. I appreciate it, but. These guys do this every day, for days, weeks, months, years. They should be celebrating themshelves, not me because I turned up here for a month and watched people work. _You_ should be celebrating, not stuck in here still working" Arthur gestured towards Merlin, still behind his desk even though it was dark out by now. Merlin shrugged.

"It needs doing." He looked back at his screen, not really paying attention to the schedule in front of him, just wanting to avoid Arthur's gaze he could feel burning into the side of his head.

"Right." The prince said, stood from the sofa and left the room.

"Right." Merlin muttered to himself and tried to absorb himself back into his work. He was interrupted again by a loud thunk on his desk, and when he looked up he saw Arthur had returned and was standing over him, his hand still wrapped around the neck of the bottole of Rumbole rum he had put on Merlin's desk

"Whre did you even get that?" He asked increduouslusly and Arthur raiesd and eyebrow with a wry grin.

"Gwaine thinks I need to 'loosen up', apparently. Now seems like a good as time as any." He explained, pouring two large glasses of the strong alcohol out. Merlin took one of them, with an air of false reluctance.

"Cheers! To Prince Arthur- His Space Highness" he held the glass up to Arthur, teasing him.

"No. Cheers! To Merlin Emrys, the hardest working and most ridiculous kind hearted and dedicated charity worker I have met in all the glaxies." He said, raising his glass to Merlin's and gazing straight into his eyes as he spoke with utter sincerity. His heart ran rampant in his chest at the sight of Merlin's responding blush filled smile until Merlin could stand it no longer and pulled his eyes away.

"You should be careful with that silver tongue. A man could get used to praise like that," he said, standing up from his desk and moving to sit next to Arthur on the settee.

"Worried Gwaine'll get jealous?" Arthur asked, only half-joking. Merlin burst into laughing.

"You do know that there's nothing going on between us?" Merlin asked.

"Of course." Arthur answered quickly, aiming for an unconcerned tone but missing it by a long way.

"He just likes cats." Explained Merlin. Arthur scoffed.

"A man like him, with that swagger and fantastic hair, just comes here for the cats?" he said, incredulously.

"Well, we're some of his best customers too." Casually said Merlin. Arthur's unconvinced expression remained.

"I won't tell anyone, you know. About the piracy. I know my father would… he'd shut you down and you do so much to help so many people… I couldn't tell him." Arthur blurted out, desperate to move the subject away from Gwaine and to have Merlin understand.

"I know you won't tell him. I never thought you would." Merlin said back with confidence.

"You're a good man, Arthur. I trust you." Merlin was staring at Arthur with such openness that Arthur's head swam. The pair were sat just a hand's width apart of the ratty brown sofa, Arthur was sure a meteor could hit the camp at this moment and he wouldn't notice, so enchanted was he by Merlin's gaze. The pair moved closer to one another slowly, Arthur's eyes flicking down to Merlin's peachy lips as if requesting permission to continue. The pair were scant centimetres apart.

Suddenly, in the soft lit darkness, Arhtur's sat phone rang. The planetary anthem of Camelot coming from the small devisce broke the spell that contained the two. Arthur sighed deeply and cringed as he pulled back.

"That'll be my father." He said sheepishly.

"Nice ringtone," Merlin quipped to hide his disappointment as Arthur answered the phone. His heart was beating quickly in his cheast and his mind racing. What was he thinking, he thought to himself, Arthur was all but engaged to Sophia and he was leaving tomorrow. Merlin downed the remaineder of his rum in one swig, stood up to compose himself and headed back to his work. Arhtur through him an apologetic glance and headed into the small room he'd been leeping in for the last month.

When the door clicked shut, Merlin buried his head in his hands at his desk, emotions swirling and warring within him more furiously that any campaign Uther had ever led. He sighed deeply, knowing he'd get little work done tonguht.


	7. Chapter 7

Arthur stood outside his private spaceship that the King had sent to collect him. His luggage had been taken off him by a uniformed lackey and the pilot was starting up the launch process, but he still hadn't boreded. He stood nervously in the port waiting for Merlin. He had barely seen the man since the aborted kiss the night before and wanted to say a proper goodbye to him. He shifted his weight from one muscular leg to the other as he stood next to Gwen and Lance, Leon already aboard the cool and air conditioned ship. Although he didn't dare to ask about the dark hair man, Gwen seemed to read between the lines of his thoughts.

"I know Merlin wanted to come," she started, drawing Arthur's attention.

"Did he?" he said mildly.

"He's run off his feet at the infirmary. There is an outbreak of flue amongst the orphans camp and Gaius begged for his help…. And, just between us, he has an awful hangover. The sun make him so sick" she explained.

"We all have awful hangovers, Gwen." snapped Arthur before composing himself.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I must go. I hope the orphans recover." He called sadly as he headed up the ramp to his space ship.

"Goodbye your highness." Gwen said with a small curtsey as Lance saluted.

"Goodbye, Tintagel" whispered Arthur under his breathe as the pod bay door swung shut and closed out the desert planet. _Goodbye Merlin._

Arthur slumped in the plush seating of his private craft. Leon sat opposite him, and as a testament to just how professional his head of security was, he didn't once point out that Arthur was sulking like a child. As they took off in a cloud of red dust and shot smoothly into the void, Arthur's phone lit up with messages and missed called.

_You have 194 missed calls from 'Sophia 3'_

_You have 231 text messages from 'Sophia 3'_

Arthur sighed, tapped the screen to bring up her details and brought the phone up to his ear.

"Hey baby I-" he was cut almost immediately by a tiny screech.

"ARTHUR PENDRAGON WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? You were supposed to take me away last weekend! Youd better be planning on making this up to me!" Soohia Tir Mor had a sheik that could deafen a banshee and Arthur winced, holding the phone away from his ear.

"I was-" cut off again.

"I don't care. I want flowers sent to my house and the chalet booking again for this weekend" she said in clipped tones.

"Soph I-" Arthur started, to no avail.

"And I'm not talking to you until it's done." With that the connection disconnected with a click. Arthur sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion. He was starting to miss not having signal.

Merlin was working late through the night in the infirmy. The void flu outbreak had cleared up more quickly than anyone had thought possible or likely but it had depleted Merlin's magical resources and the camp's medical supplies. Accordingly, Gwaine had made an early trip to visit the camp, recounting his adventures, cat nestled on his lap, while Merlin, Gwen and Gaius packed the supplies away. As much as she adored Gwaine's charms, his presense always worried Gwen slightly, even Lancelot, ridiculously noble as he was, didn't know the source of Gwaine's medical supplies- even if his crew did consist in part of her troublesome brother. The trio worked deep into the night, as Gwaine talked, until he noticed that Merlin was unusally quiet.

"What's got you so down? Misting the Space Princess?" asked Gwaine suggestively.

"No!" replied Merlin too hastily.

"I'm sure he's just tired," said Gaius with a knowing eyebrow.

"He's been running himself ragged, despite us telling him to rest," explained Gwen pointedly.

"I'm sure. I can think of better ways to keep yourself busy." joked Gwaine, ignoring Merlin's impressive combination of an eye roll and glare as he petted the kitten under its black chin.

"Do you ever get tired of those jokes?!" snapped Merlin. Gwaine smiled softly in reply.

"We both know I didn't mean with me... I can tell you really liked him." he said.

"Yes, well... he was only here for charity. And his charity's over now. It's natural for two people in clsoe quarters to become close. Besides; he has a girlfriend! I... he's a prince, Gwaine, he's used to people gushing over him. It's not like we'll see eachother again." rambled Merlin resigned.

Gwen and Gaius pointedly concentrated on unpacking the medical supplies.

"He has this big exciting life, I'm sure he's forgotten me already. It's not like he's going to call me and whi.." Merlin carried on, slightly hysterical, before being interupted by the trilling ring of his phone. Gwaine raised his eyebrows and smiked knowingly at Arthur's ringtone.

"Not a word," said Melin, gesturing a stern finger.

"Arthur! Hello!" he spoked brightly into the phone.

"Hello?" A ruch of radiation static came through the line, overpowering anyone trying to talk.

"...Merlin?" Merlin said bolt upright at the familiar voice that emerged from the static, head swimming with the realisation of how much he'd missed Arthur's voice.

"Arthur?" He said, scrunching up his face like that would make him hear better.

"That's _your hi_ghness. Are you busy tomorrow?" came the imperilous reply.

"I am always busy." pointed out Merlon.

"Oh. Well, I was going to to Jupiter 2, and I thought you deserved a break." sheepishly said the Prince.

"...I don't follow" Merlin siad.

"You should come with me. For a break. To say thanks. ...Skiing." explained Arthur. Badly.

"You bounced a signal 67 million kilometers, at great expense to yourself, to ask me to go sking with you?" asked Merlin, torn between being amuses and horrified. In the quiet of the infirmary, Gwen and Gaius were subtley making them scarce. Gwaine less sublty eavesdropping.

"Yes." said Arthur expentantly.

"Arthur, I'm _busy_" Merlin pleaded.

"I'm sending a replacement. He's called George. He's my private secratary." Arthur told him.

"Arthur you cannot send your private secretary to run a refugee camp." groaned the chairty worker.

"Yes I can." _I'm the prince_ went unsaid, but Merlin rolled his eyes all the same ad changed tactic.

"I can't even ski." Which rendered a skiing holiday utterly pointless, but Merlin's triumph was to be short lived.

"You can learn. I'll teach you!" Arthur sounded so genuine, so warm, Merlin floundered to think of another reason why he definitely couldn't go and spend more time along with the prince of space his galactic majesty.

"Generic excuse." tried Merlin

"Good I'm glad you came around."said Arthur in a tine that implied he knew he'd won.

"Arthur!" Merlin tried one more time.

"What? kssshhh pssshhh wsshhhhh you're breaking up i can't -psssshhhh- hear you." came the answer.

"You are making those noises!" protested the dark haired man.

"Sorry can't hear you I'll pick you up tomorrow! Pack for th cold!" said Arthur.

"I live on a desert! I have no warm clothes!" Said Merlin.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow morning!" Arthur said. The line disconnecting before Merlin could object.

Gawine was still grinning.

"That girlfriend of his better watch out." he said.

Merlin dropped his hands to his sides and gave a long suffering groan.

Merlin and Arthur stood on the slopes of Jupiter Two. The dull sunlight which broke through the perpetually cloudy sky in streams provide little warmth and Arthur was beginning to get distracted by Merlin's constant shivering- his thin jacket no match for snowy winds of the planet on which they stood.

"Gods it's freezing!" Merlin wedged his handsinto his armpits to pretect them from the biting cold and Arthur rolled his eyes at him.

"We're on an ice planet. I told you to pack for the cold." Replied Arthur, trying to supress his urge to wrap his arms around the man who stood shivering next to him and keep him warm.

"I have been living in a desert for 3 years. Can we get inside please? Before my ears freeze off?" pointed out Merlin; tone shorter than Arthur was used; which Arthur credited to the cold.

"Well you could stand to loose a bit of ear." He smiled. Merlin huffed out a good natured puff of breath and rolled his eyes.

"How long do we have to leave you out here before you loose a bit of your _giant head_?" Arthur shot a glare at Leon when he snorted in laughter.

"Shut up _Mer_lin. Here" Arthur pulled the trapper hat off his head ad plonked it roughly on Merlin's instead, still warm from his body heat.

"...Thanks" Merlin said, and it sounded strangled even to his own ears. He was suddenly glad of the cold as he felt a blush rise in his cheeks. He nodded his thanks to Leon who held the door of the chalet open for them.

"Um." He blinked at the sight before him. A fire was roar in the grate casting a dim warm light around the room, accentuted by clusters of candles artfully placed on available surfaces. On the low table before the sofa was a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and two glasses, surrounded by rose petals in he shape of a heart. Arthur was peeling off his gloves and looked up at Merlin's confused noise.

"Oh. OH. Ohh my gods this is- It's not- I was supposed to-" said Arhtur, flustered and embarassed as he swept the rose petals away and tried to hide them under the sofa.

"I was bringing Sophia, before, but then there was a change of plans and apparently no one called ahead. It's...yeah. Sorry." he stammered on.

"No that's...of course." Said Melin, a tight knot of anxiety loosening in his chest. That was much more reasonable than a very sudden and agrressive wooing by the prince. He let out a woosh of breath ad tried to smile at Arthur as normally as he could.

"I'll go and unpack." The tenshion eased out of Arthur shoulders and he smiled in return. Merlin picked up his scruffy rucksack out of the pile of luggage next to the door and went down the corridor to the bedrooms. Merlin turned to shut the door behind him and dropped his forehead against the wood, satisfied that the thick would would protect him from the painfully awkward atmophere he'd left.

"Ow." He whined when the contact was harder than intended and dropepd his back on the floor with a soft thunk. Merlin sighed in exasperation and turned from the door, but when he laid eyes on the – king sized, only – bed he couldn't stop the laughter that welled up. On the fresh clean sheets was another rose petal heart, and Merlin couldn't stop the laughter is he tried, and he thought vaugely he must be hysterical and having a mental breakdown because _when did his life become so utterly ridiculous?_

Arthur poked him head around the door, drawn by the ringing of the other man's laughter through the clear air, on seeing the bed, he let out a ruefully small smile and then too burst into fits of laughter at the site, when the pair calmed down Arthur cleared his throat and caught Merlin's eye playfully with a glint.

"There's champagne and oysters in the fridge." He said deadpan.

"Shame I'm a vegetarian," quipped Merlin. There was a moment of silence, then the two broke into fresh fits of laughter at the situation they found themselved in.


	8. Chapter 8

Merlin and Arthur sat in the après ski bar of the resort, esconced in a dark corner. The bar itself was gleaming sleek black marble and lined with tastefully back lit high end spirits from all the corners of the galaxy. Bar stools made of study platinum with dark leather covers lined one end of it, and the rest of the room itself was dotted with comfortable chairs made from the same black material around low black coffee tables. One of the walls was made of a single slab of the same dark marble and down it trickled a waterfall, covered by a thin plain of glass and lit by small white spotlights. Walking in to the room had made Merlin feel even more like a country bumpkim than the rest of the ski resort had: this was a place for sleek city types who oozed effortless wealth: not simple charity boys from Ealdor. He would have walked out had it not been for the reassuring smile of the man beside him as the two walked in.

"You are not sleeping on the sofa." Excalimed Arthur, he had stolen Merlin's bed once before and refused to do it again.

"Yes I am." insisted Merlin.

"No" Arthur shook his head and banged his glass on the table for emphasis.

"Yes I can't make the galactive space prince whatever sleep on the sofa. What if you get a crick in your neck? I'm sure that coulnts as damaging royal property. I could be hanged." Arthur considered it.

"Not for a crick, but if I fell off and hit my head on the coffee table, that would be held against you. And I might. I've had a bit to drink." Arthurs 'a bit' was half a bottle of wine and two - three, as he tipped his head back to swallow the dark liquid, and Merlin's drunk addleld brain did next to nothing to stop himself staring at the movememnt of Arthur's throat - straight rums. Merlin had stopped trying to keep up: he drakn so seldolmly that his ability to hold his drink and stay cohereant was sadly lacking in comparison to the Prince.

"Right, so you can't sleep on the sofa." Pointed out Merlin.

As the pair had been arguing, a young man had approached the pair unnoticed and he stood nervously by them, listening to the debate, before speaking to Arthur.

"If you come and share my bed tonight then no-one has to sleep on the sofa." He said. Merlin and Arthur fell silent and stared at the stranger. The awkwardness of the silence was deafening. It dragged on as the man's pale skin blushed bright red.

"I mean… um… sorry… I was joking." He ran a nervous hand through his black curls.

"Okay," said Arhtur in a regal tone that suggested the interloped should leave. The stranger smiled a little and spread his hand and arms.

"Arthur, it's me. Mordred. You remember?" he said hopefully.

"Ah. Yes of course! Mordred. How are you?" said Arthur, going along with the stronger's introduction.

"I knew you'd remember! People said you wouldn't but I know you better." Smiled the pale young man, taking a seat opposite the sofa the pair was sharing.

"Prince Arthur saved my life. I lived on New Nova Scotia and he saved me from raiders when he was serving with the 3rd Mercury Regiment." He gushed at Merlin, with an undercut tone of pride.

"...Sure." Responded Merlin. Mordred scowled at him but turned back to Arthur with bling smile in place, clearly dismissing him for not being entranced by his tale of Arthurs daring do.

"How have you been? I've fallen into father's old business and I'm now heading up the acquisitions department of NNS Banking." He spoke as he puffed out his chest, expecting the prince to be impressed at this title.

"I have been well, focusing a lot on charity work with Merlin" said Arhtur pointedly. Mordred did not get the hint.

"Oh, what charities? We've been looking for a new one to sponser- the tax benefits are unbelievable and galas always help in getting one's name out there. That sort of thing goes over very well with our shareholders too, tends to boost the share prices; helping the needy" he said, pulling a face of distaste when he mentioned those in need of help.

"MSA." Arthur said shortly. Mordred did not look impressed.

"Aaah, well. I don't think refugees would really be an appropriate look for our brand, you know." He said brashly, and reached out to pat Arthur on the arm. Merlin shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, and Arthur decided to put a stop to this.

"Well, it was lovely to see you again, uh, Mordred. I'm glad you're doing well. We'd best be going now." Arthur stood from the sofa and firmly shook the young man's hand once with a tight but polite smile – which Merlin had dubbed the Public Smile – which did nothing to dampen the almost abscene levels of adoration in his gaze.

"Bye Morbid!" Merlin said brightly, and couldn't help but grin at Arthur's failed attempt to cover up his snort of laughter with a cough as they walked away.

"What is his deal?" Merlin asked after the door of the bar had shut behind them. Arthur threw up his hands in exasperation.

"I don't know! I did a lot during my service, there were a lot of kids!" He scrunched up his nose in thought.

"Leon and I got some of them out of a burning stable one day... Well, Leon did. I just kind of watched the kids once they were out. I was only a teenager myself it was far too dangerous for a prince." he carried on, trying to place Mordred's face in the crowd.

"Are they all like that?" Merlin asked, worriedly.

"I should hope _not_!" Arthur exclaimed and Merlin laughed allolud at the well-bread horror in his voice.

They were trudging back through the deep snow sa they talked towards the grand chalet. They pushed the door open with a struggle, the warm air hitting them and increasing the affects of the rum. They both struggled out of their coats. Arthur's long beigh double breasted lambskin and felted wool coat fell to the floor in a heap after he tried to hang it up and failed. He shrugged and turned to Merlin, who seemed to have entrapped himself in a goretex prison of his own making.

"_Mer_lin! What are you doing?" said Arthur, princely.

"I'm stuck!" was the muffled reply.

"Oh let me help" said Arthur, bristling with faux anger for show as he stood close and grabbed Merlin's gloved hand. Gently, he slid off one glove and then the other, skin lingering over the milking whiteness of Merlin's surprisingly strong hands. Arthur felt a patter in his chest, breath caught at Merlin's hidden strength. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat to push those thoughts away.

"There, all free." He said, voice an octave deeper than normal. Merlin was staring at him with wide eyes and large pupils. The moment stretched before Merlin broke it with a step back that was more like a stagger, and a wide drunken smile spread across his face.

"Would you care for some romantic champagne, my sire?" asked Merlin reaching the bottle from the firdge and waving it before Arthur with a cheeky grin.

An hour later, the two of them were curled half asleep on the settee, champagne long finished, but its effects lingering. It was an early hour in the morning, the time, Arthur had always felt, for deep conversation.

"Arf-Arthur." Arthur grunted in response.

"Can I ask you something" asked Merlin

"Wha'?" moaned Athrur

"Why didn't you bring Sophia to...to...space." said Merlin, gesturing his arms widely at the last word before falling back unto the couch.

"To space?" Arthur grinned, aused by Merlin;s incohearance.

"For skiing! Idiot." Merlin clarified.

"I'm not an idiot! _You're_ an idiot" protested the future king, once. Merlin gave him a look.

"You're an idiot. Big idiot." Merlin prodded him in the ribs and he squirmed, but didn't say anything. The silence stretched and Merlin turned his attention back to his chapmagne glass, looking surprised to find it empty.

"We broke up. I broke up with her." Arhut told Merlin. Not looking sad.

"Oh." Merlin blinked. He was sure there was a thing you were supposed to say when someone's relationship ended.

"I'm sorry?" Arthur snorted.

"Don't be, she was...just awful. She did _not_ deserve a nice holiday." Arthur said softly.

"And I do?" queried the black haried man.

"Yes. You work very hard and for good. She was just...a prat." Arthur finished lamely, scared to tell the other man that he had been tried to do the noble thing with Sophida once he realised how much he was thinking of Merlin.

"Oh. Well I'm sorry she was a prat, then" Arthur shrugged.

"I was a prat as well." He looked down and fidgeted with his empty champagne glass, twirling the stem between his fingers.

"And you're not now?" Merlin said around a yawn.

"Not so much. You're a good influence." Arthur smiled softly, worried aout the light compliment going to the dark haired man's head. But when he looked down at the other man, he was snoring gently, somehow draped across Arthur. At least that solved the problem of who would sleep on the sofa, he thought, Arthur clossed his eyes and let Merlin's steady breathing sooth him. He was very comfortable. He'd get up and go to bed soon. In five minutes, he thought again as his eyes shut and he drigted into a deep snooze.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning broke following the night, the bright sunlight bouncing off the glistering white snow and into the living room of the Royal Chalet. Awareness came to Arthur slowly and in gradually less pleasant parts. First, he was warm. That was nice. Then, there was a body laid over him like a blanket, which was also nice until he realised it had given him a dead arm. Also he had dribbled all over his cheek, his mouth tastd like a cat had died in it, and he had a crick in his neck.

"N'dun wan Merln hand tho" He heard someone mumble, and realised it was him.

Merlin.

The human blanket.

Arthur's eyes shot open and immediately screwed sut again as the blinding morning sun light shone through the windows reflected off the crisp snow outside and stabbed into his eyes like killing knives.

"Fuuuuuuuu-" he groaned and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Hnn? Aaahhh no." Merlin grunted and Arthur glanced down to see his face also screwed up in pain before he turned his face into Arhur's jumpered chest to hide from the light. Arthur blinked at him in surprise at this turn of physicality, and Merlin squawked and sat up, frantically manhandling Arthur as he struggled upright.

"Um." Something in Arthur's chest constricted at the sight of Merlin, eyes bright and cheeks flushed with half his hair sticking up at all angles where He'd been lain against Arthur al night.

"I guess that settles whose sleeping on the sofa" Arthur said with a rueful smile, his voice grating with disuse. Merlin huffed a laugh and looked away, rubbing the back of his head nervously. Just then, came a scuffling sound at the door, Merlin looked confuse, but Arthur smiled in happiness. Standing up, he walked towards the pine wood door of the chalet as he spoke.

"That'll be breakfast." He explained. Merlin raised his eyebrows in shocked delight. Then a thought occurred to the prince and he stopped by the door before he continued in an embarrassed tone.

"This might involve more romantic gestures." He said.

"I'll brace myself against the onslaught of rose petals," Merlin joked back.

Arthur opened the door and immediately regretted it. Flash lights were going off in his face and there was a cocophony of shouting from the swarm of people crowding around the door.

_Your royal highness! Arthur! Is it true you split up with Sophia TirMor? What happened? Are you drowning your sorrows? Who are you here with? Is this a new relationship? Did you cheat on Sophia? Is it-_

Arthur slammed the door shut and turned to lean back agains it in alarm.

"Gods." He could still hear them through the door. Merlin stared wide-eyed from the sofa.

"Right." Arthur's lips pursed into a thin like and he pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Leon.

"Leon? Can you do something about...this?" He waved an expansive arm as though he could see him, then nodded after a brief moment and ung up. He looked to Merlin.

"So...I know I said you'd get a break but. We sort of have to go." Arthur rubbed the back of his head nervoucsly: this was not how he'd intended this holiday to go, and he didn't want to Merlin's dissappointment. Arthur was shocked to find that Merlin, instead of sulking, was grinning.

"Shame, I was really looking forward to that romantic breakfast," he quipped. Arthur froze, like the bird bath in the garden of the chalet, for a moment. Before catching Merlin's eye and the both of them bursting into fits of laughter at their situation.

When the two of them had calmed down and Merlin had made the pair a strong cup of coffee each and a less romantic breakfast to ward off last night's alcohol, they sat on the sofa and waited for Leon to arrive with the emergency transport out.

"I really am sorry, you know." Tried Arthur again. But Merlin just smiled.

"It's not your fault." He replied.

"I was trying to say thank you." Arthur explained. Merlin's cheeky grin was back, causing Arthur to raise a questing eyebrow.

"If this is you saying thanks, I'm really looking forward to how you apologise." Merlin joked. Arthur's fraustrated sigh at Merlin's inability to take the situation seriously was cut off by Leon's signal at the back door. Arthur grinned, if Merlin wasn't going to be serious he may as well enjoy the cloak and dagger element of their escape too.

"Let's roll." He said to Merlin as the two of them headed out of the door, towards where Leon was waiting, for them. The pair travelled under dark cloaks on the small emergency ship Leon had procured long into the evening. Merlin had been shocked that a new spaceship awaited them so quickly, but Leon had provided a quick explanation about the need for contingency plans when escorting royalty and no more had been said on the subject, by Arthur's lool and familiarity with the procedure, Merlin gathered that this was not the first time Arthur had used this method of escape.

Dusk was falling over Camelot as the ship reached the planet and it was just then that Merlin realised that they had been travelling for over twelve hours. He was used to long days on Tintagel, but he was exhausted at the travel. Failing to stifle a yawn, Arthur looked at him.

"There are bunks on the ship. We can carry straight on to Tintagel while you sleep… or, I have guest room in my flat. It has a far more comfortable bed." Arthur said, looking out of the spaceship porthole and down to his home. It was a selfish notion, but something pround and protective curled within him at the thought of having Merlin in his flat, sleeping in his bed.

"That would be nice." Merlin said- wanting to get off the ship and stretch his legs.

"Wonderful. I've already ordered food." Arthur replied, and merlin rolled his eyes at his presumtion.

Leon was piloting the small craft onto the pad that sat atop of Arthur's penthouse before either of them knew it.

"I' need to finish up here and report to your father." Leon said stoically as the two men disembarked.

"Thank you Leon, I'll save you some Pad Thai." Arthur responsed as they left Leon by the ship and headed into the dark flat. They paused by the door as Arthur dug out his key and for a moment his breath was taken away by the vision of Merlin's pearlescent skin in the white moonlight. Merlin glanced up at him through shy eyelashes.

"Well, your space highness," he said with fake reverence. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Yes Merlin?" he asked. As they headed into the penthouse.

"I've walked you to your door, this is the part where a gentleman would kiss you goodnight." Merlin continued as he stepped towards the prince.

"It's a shame he's no gentleman." Came a voice in the darkness.

It took Arthur's brain a moment to kick into gear, stepping away from Merlin in the presence of company.

"You're late." The voice continued as Arthur reached around dumbly to flick on the lights. A moment of concern for whichever of his nameless servants should have been on duty flickered through him, but was extinguished when he saw a familiar face.

"...Mordred?" he asked.

"You should have been back hours ago!" the younger man answered with a scowl.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur questioned.

"I was worried about you! _He_ might have done anything." Said Mordrid with a viscous wave of his hand at the man stood to Arthur's right.

"What, _Mer_lin?" Arhur said, increduosluy.

"Me?" echoed Merlin- a bolt of panic ricocheting through him; could Mordred know-somehow- about his magic?

"I see what he's done to you, how he's _changed_ you. I've come to free you from him!" Mordred slammed his palm on the table causing small bright sparks of magic to flash into the air.

"Mordred," Merlin said warningly. Arthur sighed impatiently.

"Merlin isn't _magic_. I'm sorry if you feel I've changed for the worse but it's really nothing to do with you, and certainly not as a result of a _curse_." Merlin shuffled uncomfortably from foot to foot, there had been no metion of a curse: Uther's dislike of magic had spoken in his son's voice.

"Don't worry, Arthur. He's cast a spell on you but I'm sure I can remove it if you'll just let me-" Mordred stepped towards the prince, hand raised implawingly.

"Get away from me!" Arthur exclamed, taking a matching step back in fear. Mordred looked at him with subdued pity, as though he's talking to recalcirtant child. Arthur stepped closer still to Merlin, warding off Mordred with his hands and looking around for a way to protect the other man.

"This is him! This is what he did to you! You want my help, I know you do..." Mordred begged in rage, desperate to help the object of his obsession. Suddenly, Arthur crumped to the floor, his landing cushioned by a bright golden glow in Merlin's eyes. Mordred met his eyes in shock and scowled with a grimace.

"How dare you" he growled.

"You need to leave." Merlin said flatly.

"Leave my prince alone!" Mordred hissed, and with an amber flash of his eyes he sent a burning burst of magic towards Merlin, simply stepped in front of Arthur's body as it lay of the ground and seltered Arthur him behind a glittering translucent sheild he raised with a casual flick of his hand. Mordred screamed in unhinged rage and tried again, his hands grackling with static is he drew his magic to him for another assault.

"No." said Merlin softly, calm despite the stormy anger of the other wizard. He gave Mordred a long look.

"I won't let you get him." He explained, and without even a word cast a powerful banishing spell, whiskering Mordred away in a whirlwind of colour and flaying streaks of magic that reached out and grazed Merlin's cheek, slashing his skin and making him flinch back. The magic and colours faded as everything that had been Mordred was sucked into the void. Merlin watched it go before knealing beside Arthur and pressing a hand to his forehead and frowning in concentration.

"_Onwæcnan_"

"What happened?" Arthur's groggy voice came from Merlin's lap as the prince began to come around.

"Merlin?" Merlin's heart wrench, the prince sounded lost and scared. He made soothing noise and ran his hands through Arthur's short sandy locks of hair.

"Mordred was here. He thought...he thought I'd cursed you." Explained Merlin carefully, glad to hear Arthur's snort of laughter.

"He thought you had magic?" he was sounding more regal by the minute as he pulled himself up. Merlin almost rolled his eyes, there was nothing like an encouter with a manic magical fan to bring out his arrogance.

"Oh. Ow!" Arthur frowned and then winced, reaching up to gingerly feel the back of his head.

"Did he knock me out?!" He asked incredualously, frowning and glancing around the room warily. "Where is he?" Merin shrugged insociantly.

"He disappeared. Must have become spooked after you fell, I don't think he'd planned for greivious harm of a royal body." Merlin lied easily, his skin squirming with discomfort at betraying his firend's trust.

"He was magic. He could only have meant to harm me." Replied Arthur with conviction. Merlin's heart sank a little as he felt his hopes dash against the jagged corners of Arthir's words.

"Not all magic users are out to hurt people." He said gently. The prince snorted.

"Power corrupts, Merlin." Merlin pressed his lips together in a thin line and only hummed in response. Now was not the time for this discussion. Footsteps in the dark of the hall drove the two men into sudden silnce until a voice in the dark called out in a tone that seemed slightly worried it might be interrupting something:

"Sire!? Merlin? Is everything well?" It was Leon.

"Leon!" called back Arthur. The bodyguard stepped into the room, looking reliefed to find the two men unharmed.

"The magician Mordred attacked us!" exclaimed Arthur to explain. Leon looked concerned but snapped into swift action, removing his blaster from it's holster at his hip.

"Follow me." He instructed, leading the two men through the kitchen and towards a safe room hidden within the flat. He stopped outside the door and fixed Merlin with a glare when he realised the younger man had picked up the small pile of take away cartons that had sat on the counter. Merlin's sheepish grin of apology was not enough to sway him, nor was the delicious smell as he took them away.

"They culd be poison" he explained as he gestured the two men into the room.

"Mordred has magic, he doesn't need poison" said Merlin, as though the idea was ridiculous. Leon's responding look was one that made Merlin gulp in discomfort as Leon locked the two of them in the safe room and strode off to secure the rest of the flat without another word. Arthur sighed and sunk into one of the small armchairs in the corner of the room.

"May as well make yourself comfortable, we'll likely be here a while." Arthur said, annoyed that his plans had gone awry again- and because of a wizard! Merlin perched in the chair opposite him.

"I'm sorry about this Merlin. It's another of the perils of being royal… there's always some republican fanatic or mad magic user out to kill you." Arthur sighed, leaning forward in his chair, elbows on his knees as he faced the other man.

"It's okay, it's not your fault" Merlin smiled distractedly.

"No. You shouldn't have to be subject to slander like that! To accuse you of having magic…When I've lived with you, when I've seen how hard you work and how much you do. You're nothing like those magicians who just…" he trailed off and waved his hand in a vague gesture, unsure at how many magic users actually lived. The education that he had received from his father went little further than establishing that they were bad, while brushing over the finer details of how magic users got by. Merlin sighed and rallied himself.

"Having magic doesn't make you any less of a person. It doesn't made you inherintly bad. Jobs are harder to find for magic users. Support is lacking. It's like people with magic are tainted and everyone lives in fear of being near them." Arthur looked at him consideringly.

"You know a lot about this." It was a statement, and Merlin's mind caught up with what he'd been saying. He couldn't expose himself, not to Arthur of all people. He shrugged and looked at the far wall.

"A lot of people who come through the camp are magic. _A lot._ Almost a disproportionate amount compared to people without magic. It's like...like the war is stacked against them." He glanced at Arthur, but he wasn't sure if he wanted him to read between the lines or not. He wasn't accusing the King of claiming magical communities were 'collateral damage' when he was actively targeting them but, well...he couldn't help what was _implied_. Arthur hummed and fell silent, frowning at the opposite wall, deep in thought. Merlin fidgeted. Just then, the door to the safe room creaked open. Instinctively Arthur stepped forward, shielding Merlin behind him.

"Sire? The coast is clear." called Leon.

"Glad to hear it Leon, that'll be all I need for the night, thank you." Arthur called back, before turning to Merlin.

"It's late, we should get some rest... Thank- thank you for today... with Mordred." he stuterred uncharacteristically, shy as he ran his hand through his hand, unsure what to do with it.

"Any time," Merlin answered with a breathless smile. Arthur grinned back in response, and led the way back into the flat, showing Merlin to his spare bedroom as he did so.

Merlin lay awake for a long time that night, staring at the holographic nebula that coverd the ceiling of the guest room casting shadows acoss his face as he lay in the purple tinged darkness, his racing thoughts chasing sleep far, far away. He couldn't shake the horrible, solid feeling that had developed in his solar plexus, writhing and jabbing at him like a living mass of misery. Arthur's voice replayed in his head, cycling around until the words became a jumbled mess, but for all of that one thing was abundantly clear. Arthur could not know about him. He had his father's opinons about magic, and Merlin heart ached at the thought of losing the delicate trust they'd built up between them.

He thought back to the moments between them when it seemed like the air was too thick to breathe and his head left swimming by the way the prince looked at him and the lost potential of those precious seconds when despite being a million miles from Ealdor he felt like he was home in Arthur's warm smile. He lay in the semi-darkness and refused to cry until a fitful sleep found him and brought with it fearful dreams of discovery cut throguh by blue eyes glaring stonily and an overwhelming sense of loss.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning after a hearty breakfast and a lot of strong coffee, Merlin left to return to Tintagel. Morgana had decided to made an unwelcome surprise visit during their meal, so Arthur was unable to accompany him home, something which he secretly longed to do. He was only stoof alone in on the launch pad for moments as his mind wondered to the other man so he didn't notice when a well dressed woman strode across the tarmac until she called his name.

"Morgana." he answered. Regardless of physical improbability, Arthur was convinced he could hear a smirk in the tapping footsteps that came to a stop beside him before he even looked.

"_So_," Morgana could fit so much weight into two letters it should be banned, and Arthur decided there and then when he was king, he was going to make illegal. He tipped his head back and groaned as his half-sister slipped a hand around his elbow, perfeclty manicured nails like talons.

"Don't start." He warned as she pulled him away from the pad and into his - his, despite how frequently Morgana let herself in to pester him - flat.

"What? He seems nice" she said, gesturing at the departed ship.

"He's a good friend." Arthur said, too defensively.

"A good friend. How good, exactly?" she asked, all smirks.

"_Morgana._" Arthur whined- his sister had the ability to reduce him to a child with a few well placed words.

"Oh come on, Arthur. I saw you together for less than five minutes and I can tell you're absollutely mad for him. You're mooning." She grinned in delight.

"I am not mooning! I don't _moon_" Arthur insisted.

"You do. You're mooning more than Exus 7." She continued.

"Just because a planet has five moons-" Arthur responded.

"Six." corrected Morgana.

"Whatever! It's not. It's not like that." Arthur threw his hands in the air and turned to storm away from his sister.

"_Oh_." she gasped, running to catch up with him.

"Arthur-" She started, reaching out a hand to his arm.

"Don't, Morgana. It hardly matters what I want." he snapped, shrugging her off.

"Like Hel! You have every right to be happy, Arthur. You have ever right to love and be loved. You're not doing anything wrong... and to the void with anyone who thinks you should sacrifice that becasue of some stupid out dated obligation. Even Uther." She ranted.

"It's not just father, I have to think about the future. I have a duty-" he started, trying to rationalise the decision.

"No duty is worth a lifetime of misery." Morgana said gently.

"Look, you have no idea what you're talking about. Nothing is expected of you and you can carry on going to parties and buying dresses for the rest of your life, because no one cares what you do, it doesn't matter. As long as you look good on the arm of whatever noble wet wipe has brought you a new toy, that's all you're for! You're not a ruler, you're eycandy!" Arthur snapped back, ignoring his sister's hurt and then furious face.

"Go to Hel, Arthur." Morgana retortet icily as she turned on her heel and stormed out. A sick feeling settled in Arthur's stomach as he dropped onto the sofa with his head in his hands. He was going to be paying for that for _weeks_.

He leaned back and stared at the ceiling blankly. Merlin had been quiet that morning, and he'd seemed so _tired_. Arthur felt he should have been able to do something but...do what? Words evaded him and though it almost physically pained him, he couldn't just reach out and hold him until the troubled frown left his face forever. It left him feeling hollow, and like he'd done omething terribly wrong but had no idea what it was.

He glanced around the flat, Merlin's presence still whirling around the room, sitting in the dirty dishes on the side, the two coffee cups, the way the door to the spare room sat ajar. He stared at the plush carpet, hoping for answers it couldn't give. Morgana was right. He cared for Merlin far more than he should and he was beginning to stop caring about the consequences. The man was true and loyal, he'd proved that last night, and Arthur's heart skipped when he thought of him. He buried his head in his hands; his father had married for love, surely he couldn't be that angry if Arthur followed his heart too.

Arthur nervously rapped on the door of Uther's private office. He had stood outside the door for five minutes attempting to work up the courage to face his father, raising his fist to the hard wood a number of times in a motion aborted by his fear.

"Come!" Uther's voice sailed clear through the air. Arthur took a deep breath and pushed the door open and stepped into the office.

"Ah, Arthur. Have you seen the new palace guards training? Very promising young men." Uther said conversationally.

"No, I'll be sure to look into that later." Arthur cleared his throat. "I need to talk to you about something...personal."

"What is it?" Uther asked, putting away the folder that sat on is desk to give his son his full attention.

"I have found someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with." Arthur held his head high, hands clasped in front of him, staring at his father, trying to keep his composure.

"Good! Who is it? Hopefully not that dreadful Sophie girl." Said Uther, clapping his hands together in glee, cheeky smile playing across his face as he needled Arthur about his ex.

"Sophia, no. It's Merlin. From Tintagel. We met while I was working there." Arthur explained carefully.

"A _refugee_?" Uther was mildly appalled at this news.

"No, he's-" Arthur was broken off by Uther's socffing.

"Of course he is, we looked into everyone working there before you set foot on the planet. He ended up there when his planet was destroyed and never left. He has no family, no breeding, and no power. A very poor match. No, he's no good: I don't want you to see him again." Uther went back to shuffling papers carlessly, his casual tone filled Arthur with resolve.

"You married for love, why can't I have the same chance?" He exclaimed.

"If you bring this up again, I will have his charity stricken from the charter." Uther replued, not looking up from his papers.

"You can't-" Arthur started.

"That is all, Arthur." Said Uther, finally looking at his son with eyes that could cut through the titanium hull of an empire class _Flying Fortress _battle ship. There was a soft knock at the door and Uther twitched his fingers in a summons.

"Come in, Aulfric. We're done here." Uther dismissed the younger man. Arthur stood unsure what to do for a moment, lost, before a glance from Uther had him leaving with his tail between his legs. Just as he reached the door, his father called him back. Tone icy as he presented his son with a photograph, clearly taken by the paparazzi at the chalet.

"Care to explain this?" He asked in an ominous voice. Arthur gulped, this was not going to be enjoyable.

Later that day, Arthur was returning to his flat after the meeting with his father. The skies of Camelot had opened in an empathetic downpour and Arthur had slunk off, disguised by dark glasses and hat, to drag his feet home through the rain, Leon following with a face of schooled disinterest. Uther's cold fury at the paparazzi photos showing a disshevaled Arthur opening the chalet door with a sleep mussed Merlin in the background had already landed on his desk and Arthur had been treated to a long, and loud, lecture on the cost of repressing them and the bonds of duty. He sighed as he opened his flat.

Sitting alone on the sofa he had shared with Merlin the night before, he agonised over his predicament. He had to talk to the charity worker, it had only been hours, but since his resolution that he had come to in his talk with Morganana, he couldn't stand the thought of waiting another second to see the raven locked man. He sighed again into the emtpty room.

Arthur needed to speak to Merlin. He couldn't just cut contact like this, he needed the chance to explain himself, or at least...

There was no 'at least'. Uther had been clear as Nymerian glass; he would cut Merlin's charity off if he so much as suspected Arthur of seeing him, and he couldn't allow that. They struggled by enough, he couldn't make things worse for them. He groaned allowed and buried his face in a plush cushion. There was just nothing he could do.


	11. Chapter 11

A turmulent week passed on Camelot as Arthur continued to worry over what to do about Merlin, going about his royal duties as though they were clockwork. The time was a blur of fake smiles and press photoes at events that Arthur could not bring himself to care about. It was strange, he thought, how the other man had wormed his was into his heart, burrowing like a rabbit into his affections until the thought of having to never see him again left him sick and the world a colourless place. Arthur did not want to face it, but his father's threats against Merlin had left him feeling powerless and he was lost.

He'd considered risking bouncing a signal to Tintagel to call Merlin, but the Secretary of Communications, Aulfric, reported directly to his father and certainly such a gamble would not be overlooked. Arthu sat at his desk and stared at the phone, knowing he could not take the risk but fantasizing about suddenly developing the ability to communicate by astro-projection. As he stared at the phone, which sat, red, on his wooden desk, he barely noticed Leon enter the room, through the whispr-quiet door behind him. After a moment, the curly-haired man clered his throught lightly to attract Arthur's attention.

"You have a booking at _Bis_ on Veniss this weekend, sire." Leon informed him, referring to a very high class and fasionable restraunt that floated on the water's of the planet and catered to only the most influencial of people.

"Oh." Arthur was barely paying attention – he'd looked up briefly to acknowledge Leon's presense, but had almost immediately gone back to staring at his phone. It would ring in three, two, one….in three, two, one…

"I have taken the precaution of finding out if Mr Emrys would be there at 8PM planetary. As your father has expressed his dipleasure at your spending time together, I wouldn't want there to be an incident." Leon said as casually as if he were discussing the weather, his hand glasped behind his back, staring straight ahead, he made no eye contact with the prince.

"...and is he?" Arthur asked hope filling his heart.

"Fortunately he had not planned to be. I've asked Percival to pick him up." Leon continued in a neural tone. Arthur stood to his feet, excitement barely contained and poorly concealed.

"Will that be all, sire?" He asked blandly.

"Yes, thank you Leon. _Thank you_." Arthur held his bodyguard's shoulders, one step away from hugging him bodily, when the older man stepped back and with a polite smile left the foom with a shoosh of the doors.

Arthur sttod by the kitchen door and drew a deep breath of the fresh Venissian air. In the moonlight, the water that lapped at the side of the canal behind him was dappled. Arthur couldn't deny that Leon had done well in his choice of romantic venue. Calming his nerves, he opened the steel outer door and stole into the restureant through the kitchen, a suggestion of Leon's to ensure discretion both from the press and his father, the king.

Arthur stepped into the dining room and looked for Merlin. The tables were full with the lively bustle of dinner, making Arthur feel nervous, suddenly unsure of himself, insides rolling like the sea in a storm. And then his eye was caught by the dark hair man sat in the corner. His heart stuttered. The noise of the restaurant fell away into a muted hum in the background, the busy room parted around him like impossible waves breaking around a rock in the ocean, clearing a path between the two men. Merlin sat, playing with a rich bone coloured linen napkin, lit by an ethereal spotlight that shone brighter than any other in the restaurant, he was an ivory angel in a slate grey suit. On seeing his face, Arthur's nerves calmed like a placid lake. He walked forwards.

"Arthur!" Merlin stood up, grin splitting his face brightly. He stepped towards Arthur as he stood by the table, sending a large carafe of water flying, soaking the fine carpet and splashing the prince's dark trousers.

"Oh! Sh- sorry! I'm so sorry, I did not mean to do that, here…" Merlin took his naplin and started dabbing at Arthur's trousers, his hands moving higher, making Arthur's mind stammer. He took a step away from Merlin and gently took the napking, a gesture that made Merlin realise just how high his hands had creeped.

"Um." Merlin was flustered, unsure if he should apologise for essentially groping the future king.

"Shall we sit?" Arthur sad, trying to ignore the way the air between them danced with nervous tension.

"How was your journey?" Arthur asked, clearing his throat, to distract himself from the way Merlin's hands had felt.

"You know, none of my other friends have sent Luther Hargreeves to pick me up in a private craft and dress me." Merlin grumbled.

Arthur smiled and nodded, not really sure what Merlin was on about, but happy that he'd made Merlin happy. There was a silence.

"You look good" Arthur blurted out.

"I - thanks. Percival told me to wear it." Merlin ducked his head to hide his blush and resumed fiddling with the corner of the napkin on the tbale.

"I know, I picked it. Somehow I didn't think 'desert chic' minus the chic would go down too well here." Arthur explained, quirking his eyebrow with a smirk.

"About that; I absolutely cannot afford to be here" Merlin said, as if he were imparting a deep secret. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, Merlin. This is me apologising for the 'thank you' trip" he explained as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Merlin grinned despite Arhtur's tone.

"Well, I knew you'd apologise in style" he said flippantly, with a twinkle in his azure eye. Arthur smiled in response and the pair fell back into their comfortbale banter as a the waiter came to take their drinks orders.

The night ran on and far too soon for Arthur's liking, they were eating dessert. Or rather, he was eating dessert and Merlin, having insisted that he couldn't eat another bit was staring longingly at Arthur's giant tiramisu. Arthur rolled his eyes at the dark hair man's ridiculousness and scooped a particularly large bite onto his spoon. Compeltely ignoring the second spoon the waiter had discretely given to Merlin he leaned forward, offering the bite to him.

"Come on, try it. You know you want to." He said as he held the spoon up to Merlin. Merlin smiled shyly.

"Just one bite." He said and leaned in to eat off the spoon the golden prince was offering him. His eyebrows raised at the delciousness of the dish and the sound of pleasure he made was practically obscene. Arthur swallowed hard.

"Would you like another?" he asked. Cutting another bit off the pudding and offering it again. Merlin stared at Arthur for a moment and then shook his head sadly, as though he were composing himself.

"Are you alright?" asked Arthur, confused at the shift in Merlin's demeanour. Merlin looked down at his hands, before picking up the spare spoon and playing with it idlly.

"Is this a date? Because this is just a lot more than...than what friends do. And I like you a lot more than friends." He asked, not meeting Arthur's eyes, until after he had finished speaking, when he raised his hopeful gaze to Arthur, a blush colouring his cheeks.

Arthur opened his mouth to respond and shut it almost immediately. _Yes_, yes, absolutely this was a date, and then there would be another and another, until at some point, through some terrible channel, the king found out. And then there would be no more dates as all of Merlin's hard work crumbled to dust, and they turned to more desperate measures to keep the camp running, and more pirates got involved - the worst kind - and families were broken up as they did anything to survive and it ended up as just another Helish backwater planet of depravity.

"Merlin, I-" he started, but the words died painfully in his throat, inable to force what he wanted to say out for fear of his father's ire.

"And it's fine if it's not! Of course! I just want to know" Merlin babbled frantically to fill the dead air between them. He looked at Merlin with desperate hope and longing in his eye. Arthur could see hoe nervous he was but he couldn't ruin his life like that, not for something so selfish. A few dates at most, maybe a month together, and then...

"Please say something." Merlin said quietly, looking down at his hands. He was panicking. His lungs had forgotten how to breath and something cloying was crawling up his chest from deep inside, something that said you were wrong, you were wrong like a death knell. He had misundertood, of course Arthur wouldn't be into him like that, he was no one and nothing.

"You know I'm not normally lost for words" Arthur said with a shade of a wry grin, a choked chuckle. Merlin felt his face shift into a wobbly smile, forced and pathetic.

"It's not - I can't-" Arthur said gesturing as though there was something he couldn't grasp. He staired down at his hands, his excuses stuck in the lump that had formed in his throat. Merlin deserved so much better than It's not my fault. I can't stop my father ruining your life. He watched as the las of the hope in the other man's eyes faded nd his face slackening into a passive mask. He felt his soul wither as Merlin didn't look at him, but through him, as though he'd ceased to exist even in memory.

"It's okay, Arthur. I get it." Merlin's voice was monotone and his expression shuttered as he stood, finally looking Arthur in the eye again, but the prince almost wanted to cry at the huge amount of Nothing he saw there.

"I'm gonna go. We're really busy at work at the moment so. I might not see you for a while. Thank you for dinner though, it was" soul destroying "really nice." He gave Arthur one final painful smile before walking out without looking back.


	12. Chapter 12

The sky was a dark navy over the desert. Rain lashed the windows of Merlin's office as he sat at his desk, eyes glued to the screen, dark circles smudged across his pallid skin below them, hair awry, piles of case files piled up around him. Gwen stood nervously at his desk, ringing her delicate hands, an expression of defeat splayed across her young face. The pair were in the middle of a conversation that they had had multiple times over the last moth.

"Merlin. I'm worried about you, we're all worried about you. Please, take a break, eat something." She begged softly.

"I'm okay, thanks, too much to do," Merlin brushed her off with a brief and inconvincing smile.

"You're not okay." Gwen countered. She walked to the desk and reached out to Merlin, who moved his hand away and sighed.

"Please. Gwen. I am okay. I need… I need to get this work done. These are orphans and they won't wait." He gestured futilely at the screen, looking at her with his eyes full of please. Since his disastrous meal with Arthur he had thrown himself back into his work more than ever, barely stopping to eat or sleep, except when his body insisted. Unable to allow himself to think of Arthur, he forced himself to keep busy so he could keep going.

Gwen sighed and looked down, defeated. It was the same every time, and Merlin felt a pang of guilt mixing in with all the other emotions he was trying to surpress.

"Okay. I'm not saying I like it, but okay. I'll be around if you need me, Lance and I have a romantic date sorting out warehouse inventory… Not that I'm complaining about our relationship… I'm sorry, you don't want to hear about this… I'm going to go." She babbled, worried about hurting Merlin's feeling by reminding him of her happy relationship. She stood awkwardly for a moment before turning around to leave.

She shut the door quickly behind her to keep out the driving rain, and Merlin watched her dash across the muddy ground to the warehouse through the water-blurred window. He sighed at stared at his screen again, barely taking in the information in front of him. Hangs reaching up to run through his inky mane, made unruly, he buried his head in them and for a brief moment let himself think about Arthur, not that that man had been allowed to stray far from his traitorous mind for the last month. Taking a deep breath, he raised his head and sunk back into his work. The lonely minutes passed at a drag, as Merlin processed more and more of the oprhans' files. Suddenly he was disturbed by a disperate hammering at the office door.

No one in their right minds would leave shelter today, and Merlin's mind flashed through every terrifying emergency that could force someone to brave the rain that came down like watery knives, even with the power to lacerate skin. He had only opened the door a crack when a sodden black and white mass bundled in in a rush of rain water, sputtering and swearing. Merlin slammed the door behind them and whirled around, his exclaimation dying on his lips as he saw a familiar broad frame and blonde hair, and his heart lept in his chest. Arthur turned, running a hand through his hair where it was plastered to his head turning the brilliant gold into a dark caramel, his white shirt was plastered to him like a second skin, made tanatalisingly transparent in the downpour, it left nothing to Merlin's imagination.

"Arthur! What are you _doing_ here? And why did you knock? it's thrashing it down you should have just come in, idiot" his voice came out in a rush. Arthur looked up and smirked, and Merlin's heart ached to see the crystal blue of his eyes again. Pictures could never do him justice, not that Merlin had been looking him up on the spacenet at all. Not even once.

"Knocking is polite, _Mer_lin. I thought it never rained here!" Arthur raised his eyebrows as if somehow the annual event was Merlin's fault. Merlin rolled his eyes.

"You have picked the only day in the solar calendar that it rains to show up unnanounced. Most pilots won't come near us today, they call it _dydd glaw_. Speaking of which…?" He raised his eyebrows expectantly, and suddenly it dawned on Arthur that the last time they'd seen eachother, Merlin might as well have said he didn't want to see him anymore. A voice in the back of his head - which sounded uncomfortabley like Morgana - chastised him for being so arrogant as to think the fact that _he_ had finally made a decision, that Merlin would still be waiting for him.

"Well…" Courage. No matter what happened, if Merlin cursed him into the void or not, if he was still to be king, he needed courage. And Merlin deserved that.

"I'm in love with you. When you left I...I felt like I'd never be whole again. Like you'd taken a part of me with you and I'd never get it back, like I'd be a husk for the rest of my life as long as you weren't in it. I was too scared of - of _everything_ to tell you then, but I don't care what happens to me. I just want you. Always." Though his nerves battled with him every step of the way, Arthur forged on with his eyes locked on Merlins, willing him to see the truth in what he was saying; stripping away all his excuses and laying his heart bare for Merlin to do with as he will. He held his breath.

"Oh." Merlin blinked at him.

"Yes." The silence stretched. Arthur's stomach riled with nerves and his blood was roar in his ears so loudly he could barely hear the hammering rain on the thin walls.

Merlin had so much to say, _I love you, why did you let me leave, what's going to happen to us_, but none of the words would come out. He stared at Arthur dumbly, trying to find the right words amongst the cacophony that raged through his thin body, alighting his blood with the fire of longing, which was held back by a dark smoke of doubt.

"Merlin" Arthur choked his name, voice thick with tears, eyes wild and searching for a spark in Merlin's, his body thrumming with pure emotion.

The silence roared between them.

Suddenly, without warning, the two of them surged together, synchronised like a pair of dancers in a perfectly choreographed tango. Arthur's strong hands encircled Merlin's lithe hips, while the other man's hands snaked up his broad chest to cling to Arthur's soaking shirt. They were pressed together from toe to chest, the warm wetness of Arthur's clothes soaking into Merlin, faces just millimetres apart they paused for a moment, which was held pregnant with anticipation.

"Hi," Arthur whispered with a small smile.

"Hi," Merlin responded and closed the gap between their lip in a brutal and desperate kiss that caused Merlin's knees to buckle in delight. The pair pulled away from each other, still moving as one, foreheads rested on each other's, eyes still locked together.

"It's mutual," Merlin grinned, before pulling Arthur into another kiss, that the prince happily deepened before they broke apart again.

"You're soaking" Merlin muttered looking at Arthur's shirt.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"One of Morgana's fancy parties, I left early. This seemed more important." Arthur shrugged as he explaned, holding Merlin's gaze.

"Yeah. How long for?" Merlin retorted, unable to keep the bitterness from leaching into his voice at Arthur's mention of his duites. Arthur grimaced a little.

"I have the leave in the morning. But I'll be back, as soon as I can" he promised, stroking Merlin's chin. Merlin smiled, a small, sad smile.

"Let's just...have tonight then. Until next time." He said: resolved.

"Until next time." Arthur agreed and then grinned salaciously.

"I remember you having a very comfortable bed." Arthur said, with a suggestive flourish of his eyebrows. Merlin grinned in response.

"As long as you don't still expect me to sleep on the sofa while you're in it," he said. Arthur kissed him again to stop his cheeky mouth, but Merlin didn't mind. Arthur was holding onto Merlin tightly enough to bruise, he lifted him from the ground. Merlin's legs wrapped around Arthur's muscled waist as he staggered towards Merlin's small bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them.

Arthur sat leaned against Merlin's headboard, covers pooled around his waste and Merlin snuggled close to his hip sleeping. Lost in thought, he traced idle patterns along Merlin's bear shoulder with his blunt well manicured fingers. He felt peaceful for the first time since he'd last seen Merlin; his crushing guilt had been inescapable since the ill-fated dinner, sickening him to his core, but now the constant noise in his mind had quieted, replaced by the soothing balm of Merlin's presence.

Merlin shorted in his sleep and Arthur suppressed a laugh, smiling fondly at him in a way he know was disgustingly fond, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He gently extracted himself from the bed and went into the adjoining small bathroom to shower.

Merlin was woken by the sound of pattering water - surely the rain had stopped by now? The sound caught in his mind on a memory; wet hair, wet shirt, _Arthur_. His eyes flew open then scrunched shut at the bright light streaming through his one small window and he grunted. Through narrow slits, he could see the bed was empty. He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the the bathroom door opened.

In the doorway of Merlin's small bathroom, backlight by a majestic white light, steam billowing around his feet, looking like and otherworldly being, stood Arthur. He had showred and was towelling his hair, the moisture of the bathroom making his defined muscles glisten in the early morning light. Merlin's own pajamas were slung low on his hips showing the deep vees of his hips that Merlin could rememnper running his hands and lips across. Merlin stretched languidly in his sheets and smiled a sleepy smile at his lover.

"Morning," he grinned.

"Morning Merlin." Said the Prince back.

"I like your payjamas." Merlin gestures to the tatty blue and marigold checked bottoms that he normally wore in bed.

"They do bring out my skin" smiled Arthur in agreement.

"But what am I meant to wear?" asked Merlin in a tone of feigned innocence, slight pout around his mouth.

"I quite like you in nothing at all." Replied Arthur, eyebrow dancing salaciously as he leaned down to give Merlin a gentle peck on the lips. Merlin tried to lengthen the kiss, but Arthur stepped back deftly, looking regretful.

"I wish I could stay longer." He sighed and sat down on the bed next to Merlin, who was now leaned against the headboard, linking their fingers together, he raised Merlin's hand to his mouth and kissed it softly.

"You'd stay if you could." Smile Merlin sandly.

"And I'll be right back. As soon as I can. I can't imagine thinking of anything bit you while I'm gone: it'll be terrible how much I'm going to miss you." He looked down at his knees in sadness, while Merlin gave his strong hand a quick squeeze of reassurance.

"Yup, you fly off and be brilliant and smooth things over with Uther and I'll be here. Waiting." Smiled Merlin, happily trying to lighten the other man's mood. Arthur grimanced.

"I hope he's not too mad that I left his fundraiser." He replied.

"You'll make him understand." Said Merlin, with optimisim as sunny as both of Tintagel's dual suns. Arthur sighed deeply again.

"I hope so." He replied as he stood and dressed himself in his ruined tuxedo, much to Merlin's amusement. He himsef just pulled on his usual cargo trousers, black longsleeved t-shirt and faded flannel overshirt. He wound his scarf around his neck after shaking out the dust.

"I'll be back as soon as I can. You'll be all I think of." Arthur promised as he walked out the door. Merlin pulled him back for a last kiss.

"I bloody better be." He joked, snogging Arthur thoroughly. As Arthur manhandled him back towards the bed, he thought there was very little point in having gotten dressed.

All too soon, Arthur's space pod was taking off into the sky. A slightly dishevelled Merlin stood back, grinning gormlessly at memories of the night they had shared, watching Arthur as he flew away, and sighing to himself. He was so distrated in his thoughts that Gwaine's voice made him jump.

"I know that smile. You and the princess all made up, then?" he teased. Merlin blushed scarlet and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. As he turned back to the camp, Gwaine caught his expression of longing.

"Oh I see how it is" Merlin gave him a sidelong glare. His voice was light, but Gwaine was wearing a smirk that forecast merciless teasing.

"I was going to offer to keep you warm until he gets back, but I can see you're besotted." he joked.

"Keep me warm? We're on a desert planet." Merlin replied, still grinning inanely.

"There is a prince so sweet and kind…" Merlin groaned in exasperation. Flamboyant to a fault, Gwaine took anything as an excuse to put on a show.

"_No_. Nope. No poetry." He insisted, to no avail as Gwaine threw his arms wide in an affective gesture with flair.

"His gesture, motion, and his smiles; his wit, his voice my heart beguiles!" He reciteded, _loudly_, causing a few confused glances in their direction, but he was unphased.

"Shut up." Merlin said petulantly, glaring at him. Gwaine just batted his eyelashes in response.

"...Beguiles my heart, I know not why; and yet, I'll love him till I die!" Gwaine swooned dramatically and fell to the ground, the back of his hand pressed to his forehead. Merlin kicked him petulantly and stalked off, leaving the other man laughing on the ground.


	13. Chapter 13

Two days went by. A week. A month. The satellite came and went in range, and still nothing. Merlin had gone through being concerned, passed by being sad, waved a fond greeting to anger, and was now sitting quite uncomfortably in glowering and miserable. Gwen had tried to cheer him up by making his favourite cake - dried fruit - and Gwaine had tried getting him drunk, which just ended with Gwaine escorting him home when he wouldn't stop wailing about how he'd been 'beguiled'. Gwaine at least had the good grace to admit that particular episode was his fault. Gauis had just given him a long look and told him to get more gauze, which he appreciated intensely, and turned his energies back into his work tenfold.

"_Hel_" Merlin muttered under his breath, swiping his hand to erase the last few cells of data on his screen. He'd copied over the wrong numbers, _again_, because he'd been distracted, _again,_ thinking about a certain member of the Intergalactic Royal House of Pendragon who had still not called him in over a month despite the fact he definitely had a copy of the satellite schedule, and Merlin had already checked that the satellite isn't out of service. _Again_.

He glared back at his screen trying to force himself to concentrate, but a shuffling and muttering and whispering outside his door wormed it way into his consciousness unltill he couldn't focus on anything else anyway, even if he'd wanted to. He stood and strode over to the door, yanking it open and glowering.

"What is it, Gwen?" He asked, pained.

"Merlin!" Gwen squeaked in surprise as the door her and Lance had been whispering _very loudly_ in front of was yanked open.

"Um, I- _we_ just wanted to talk to you. And see if you'd seen...this." She handed him a Spacenet tablet nervously, as though she was afrid he might bit eher hand off if she came too close. He frowned and took it, skimming down the page until a headline caught his attention and made his chest constricyt painfully and his heart plummet through the ground.

_**A Royal Affair: Prince Arthur Announces Engagement to Spaceiety Girl Sophia Tirmor**_

"Not that I wanted to upset you, or anything, it's just I thought you should know, but you've probably seen it anyway. Or if you haven't then I didn't want to keep it from you, not that I'd be hiding it because it's in the news and everything - oh." She trailed off as she looked desperately to Lance for help and he shook his head gently.

Merlin felt like all his blood had rushed to his head, scorching his cheeks, and then immediately drained away again leaving him cold and trembling. This couldn't be right. Arthur had said- they had talked… He frowned. Arthur didn't _like_ Sophia, that much he'd made perfectly clear, so why would he choose to spend the rest of his life with her? Was it his father? As much of a prat he might be, he would have called, he would have told Merlin something. The silence was worrying.

"Right." It came out distracted, short, as the thoughts whirled in his mind.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked, frowning at him in concern but Merlin didn't look up, still staring at the article in front of him.

"Yeah...thanks. I'm gonna…" he pointed behind him vaguely, then shut the door on the couple and went back to his desk. He set the tablet down and tapped his fingernails on the surface, chewing on his lower lip. Should he call? Or had Arthur made it transparently obvious he wanted nothing to do with Merlin? Had he just dreamed what happened on _dydd glaw_? He rubbed his hands over his face and stared at the mottled surface of his desk.

There was too much he didn't know, that he didn't understand. He needed to talk to Arthur, to hear his voice. He sitched the timetab;e on to his screen. The satelitte was in range. He grabbed his handset before he could chance to change his mind and entered Arthur's number in so fast he fumbled it and the line honked at him in invalidity. He tried again, slowing his hand, and pressed the handset to his ear.

_Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. _click.

"Arthur?" He asked, nervously.

"Merlin! How are you?" Arthur sounded...chirpy, which was a bizarre reaction when talking to someone you confessed to being in love with and then stopped talking to completly.

"Confused. What...what's going on?" in the absece of being able to search Arthur's face Merlin began to fidget, picking at the cuticles on his free hand.

"Oh no! Did you hear about Sophia and I? I don't know how I let this one go last time!" Merlin's heart cracked slightly. Maybe he had been mistaken. Arthur was clearly thrilled, what right did he have to disrupt that?

"It was...unexpected." He couldm't tell him it was tragic, heartbreak, gutting news.

"She's so wonderful. What's that, darling?" his voice drifted away and there were distant murmurs as he spoke to Sophia in the background.

"Arthur!" Merlin snapped, trying to bring him back; he needed to know what was going on. There was a crackle on the line and Arthur's voice returned.

"Must dash, we're going to Avalon Nostra. Bye!" The line disconnected without another word from Merlin. He was crestfallen. Something was definitely wrong, and he had no idea what it was or how he could fix it. Certainly from there he wouldn't be able to do anything. Avalon Nostra was an uninhabited planet on the edge of the Albian Nebula, but he didn't know much else about it. Surely there's no reason for Arthur and Sophia to go there when there's nothing there to go _to_?

He flinched as he picked to hard at his finger but the soreness distracted him from the clouded mire of thoughts in his head and one thing became personally clear. He had to go. Something was wrong, and he needed to fix it, or at least _try_.

"Gwen! I need to take the ship." Merlin burst into the infirmary - thankfully empty, save Gwen packing first id kits. She looked up in alarmed concern.

"Merlin? What's going on?" She tucked the hydrcolloidal bandage sprays in her hands into the kits in from of her and turned to him, a frown marring her brow.

"I need to find Arthur." He sounded desperate he knew, and possibly also looked a bit mad as he'd tried two warehouses and the barracks before ending up here, racing around the camp like a man posessed.

"Merlin…" Her voice was gentle, _pitying_, and Merlin shook his head, almost to shake off her frustrated sympathy.

"_Gwen_. Something's wrong. I called him and he didn't sound right. He didn't sound like _Athur_" He grabbed her hand, pleading with her silently to understtnad. She looked at him searchingly for several long seconds and sighed.

"If you're sure. Are you going to be all right piloting? It's been three years since you last flew" She wrung her hands together- there was a good reason the clumsy warlock had stopped flying.

"Sure. It's like riding a hover bike right?" Merlin grinned, sounding more confident than he was. His concern for Arthur overcoming his fears.

"Extremely dangerous in inexperienced hands, yes." Squeaked Gwen in return.

"I'll be fine. Thank you!" Merlin insisted as he turned away and headed toward the ricketty old spaceship that sat in the charity' hangar.

"Try not to crash into the void!" called Gwen to his departing back.

The mist hung low over the tall unform pine trees in the dying light. Hills rolled across the landscape, the brief twinkle of a clear and pure lake reflecting in the near-distance. Frost lined the ground and the needles of the trees, tinting everything from brilliant greens and browns into an eerie silver glitter. Everything was still, everything was clear. It was as if this world was holding its breath, waiting for something to break the poised silence. Not even the sound of woodland creatures scurrying through the branches or the undergrowth drifted from the depths of the forest. The desolate beauty of the planet was a lonely one, in which it seemed things were not meant to live but simply to be.

Merlin stood at the top of the gangway from the ship to the muddy ground and took a deep breath of crystaline clear air. He was following his magic, which drew him like a magnet towards his other half, towards Artur, in an irresistible tug in his thorax. The mist glunc to his legs as he went through the icy forest silently. Soon he emerged from the trees on the shore of a lake, and before him he could see Arthur and Sophia, silhouetted against the glittering water, in a lovers imbrace, and he felt his heart drop. He had been mistkaten.

His entire body shook with anguish, and for a moment he stilled, cleft in two, torn like a leaf from a tree, between the churning desire to run away, and the need to press forward, towards the Prince Arthur, spurned on by the overwhelming feeling of wrongness at the scene that lay before him. His mind was made up for him scant moments later when Arthur collapse, like a puppet with his strings cut. He fell in a heap. Merlin gasped. He ran forward, flinging his caution into the wind in his desire to get to Arthur.

Sophia's head wiped around towards his and he stumbled as he saw her eye were burning red like the Morning Star but he couldn't stop, Arthur needed him. "Arhtu" he screamed across the void that chasmed between them running, fleet footed, to where Sophia stood over the blond man. Sophia stepped one long leg towards merlin, stepping on arthur's chest to step over him.

"Halt, Merlin" She said and held out her hand. She cast a spell and her eyes flashed red again and Merlin felt his feet glue to the ground like treacle through her body maintained momentum and he flaieied, struggling not to fall to the ground.

"Sophia!" he said in a supersillicious tone.

"Merlin!" she scowled, steeping more forward as she did so.

"You've had your filthly claws in my Arthur too long. He was perfectic. Coming back to Camelot with his head filled with stoires of you and making the galaxy a better place. I know you're plan. I know you want to take him from me. That you want to sit by his side on the throne." She broke off her speach to give a terrifying high-pitched giggle.

"Did you even really think that you could succeed at that? A dirty refugee on some dirt planet? Do you know who I am? Who my father is? And your thought Arthur would pick you over me? I am going to be the next Queen of Camelot, Mervin, and you- you're just going to be some trashy forgotten orphan in Uther's stupid war. I'm going to make sure that Arthur doesn't even rememeber your name." As she spoke, her words dipped in poison, she walked slowly, and steadily towards Merlin, her insane gaxe fixed on him. Merlin, unable to move his feet still, couldn't look away. Unnoticed by both of them, Arthur, still on the floor, moved slightly, starting to come round from Sophia's spell.

Sophia raised her hands and shouted a spell under her breath. Merlin felt her grip on him slip away: she wasn't strong enough to hold up two spells at once. As soon as he saw her eyes blaze red he dropped to the floo, and narrowly avoivded being burnt to death by a flaming ball of blue fire that she had launched at him. He rolled quickly to the side as Sophia slashed her arm down, and invisible force made the muddy ground crack where he had lay.

Pushing himself up onto his feet, he stood up. And smiled a little. Two could play at the games. He pulled raw power from the air around them and sent a roaring, burning ball of fire in Sphia's direction. She made a shield of glittering magic and it bounced away into the lake and disappeared with a hiss as the wet water engulfed the fire. Merlin barely had time to react or attack again when he was struck in the chest by the same invisible force and helpt himself lifted of off his feet and flung far against a tree. He slid to the bottom, sitting with his back against the rough trunk, gasking for air as his back seized and Sophia adcanced on him menacingly.

"Those were some pretty tricks, but the game is over" she sneered at him. Anything pretty about her face had gone and sdhe looked evil in the dying light as the sun set over the high peeks. Merlin was still cathing his breath, he did have the breath in him to cast a spell. he dug his fingers into the dirt behind him and let his magic trickle into the eart, feeling all things that live and grow therein, whispering silent words, he spoke to the planet itself. He felt a large root, and with a tug he felt in his chest, the tree behind him kindly flicked the root up through the earth, catching sophia behind the knees and sending her crashing to the ground hard on her back. She cried out in pain and humiliation as she landed.

Merlin quickly surged to his fett and stood over her. She tried to sit up but he pushed her back to the ground with a firm hand on her collarbone, his hand filling with crackkling golden magic that wrapped around his wrist and traipsed up this arm towards his torso.

"Any last words?" He asked, fury burning through him from nowhere in a response to the fear of almost losing Arthur. His magic held no pity for the desparate witch. She snarled at him, her eyes flashing red and stuttering back to unearthly blue as Merlin's magic blocked hers and held her in place.

"Thought not." With a flash, Sophia was gone, leaving nothing in her blace but the faint miasma of ozone. Merlin smirked humourlessly at the ground where she lay. Merlin pulled himself rom his reverie as a flash of concern for Arthur bolted through him, he turned to where his prince lay, only to find the man stood on his geet, face aghast. Merlin's heart crumpled at Arthur's hard expression.

"You...You…!" Arthur stammered.

"Arthur I can explain" Merlin tried to talk, stepping towards the other man slowly, hands raised in surrendered, as though he where approaching a young and skittish animal.

"No! You lied to me! You're...a mutant!" Shouted Arthur anrily.

"Arthur-" Merlin took a step forward, arm reached out towards him, but Arthur stepped back with a look of revulsion on his face that sent Merlin's hear plummeting to the floor. A great rushing sounded overhead and Arthur's craft hove into view an set down behind him.

"Stay away from me." He snarled, venom in every word of his voice.

"Arhut, please." Merlin whispered, heartbreak coarsing through his veins.

"No. You stay the hell away from me, you... you monster!" Arthur screamsed, turning away from Merlin, who followed him, tears streaming from his eyes. He watch through blurred vision as Arthur boarded the craft and took off, watching until it became a small, black, dot in a blurry greay sky. Realising he was alone, he sunk to the ground, sobbing and retching with the loss, heartbroken and scareed for the safety of Tintagel, lest Arthur should report him to his father, Uther, the War King who hated magic. He let himself cry.


	14. Chapter 14

A week later, Gwen, Gwaine and Laneclot stood in Merlin's office peering into his room, where he lay supine in the bed he had been in since his return to Tintagel. On his return to the planet, he had landed the craft and walked straight to his office, not staying a word to anyone, trailed by a large black cloud that had loitered around for days before disapating.

"Merlin," Gwen called gently from the doorway, Merlin raised his head to glance at her with glazed eyes.

"Merlin, honey, we're worried about you." Gwen slowly walked into his bedroom.

"We know the Princess has done a number on you, but you need to look after yourself," Gwaine explained softly, a tabby cat weaving round his legs. He bent down to stoke her, before scooping her into his arms and unceremoniously placing her on Merlin's bed. Despite himself, Merlin smiled weakly, and scratched her tabby chin.

"I'm fine." Merin said to the room, the three others shared unconvinced glances.

"No you're not" insisted Gwen in a motherly tone.

"At least tell us what happened" Gwaine said. Merlin groaned and buried his head in his pillow.

"Merlin." Gwen said as sternly as she could.

"He knows." replied Merlin, his voice muffled through the pillow.

"Oh _Merlin_…" Gwen sighed, rubbing her hand along his back in a comforitng gesture.

"He knows and he's going to-he's going to-" Merlin lifted his head from the pilow to speak, before sinking it back down in dispair. The silence hung between them for a fragile moment. When Merlin suddenly sprung from the bed and started pacing wildly, running his hands through his hair as he went.

"I'm going to die Gwen! That's what he does! He'll tell the ing and then he'll send someone for me and I'll die! I should leave because they'll just come and destroy everything and everyone and I can't let that happen, Gwen! I can't let them come and-and" He sunk to the floor by Gwen's feet, crying fat tears.

"Merlin, calm down. Breathe. Nothing's going to happen. He's not done anything yet, has he?" she bent down and placed her hands on his elbows, pulling him up.

"That doesnt mean-" he started.

"Arthur wouldn't." she insisted quickly.

"You didn't see him, Gwen" Merlin protested, in sullen panic.

"He wouldn't." she insisted more forcefully this time.

"I just...I feel like he's gutted me. I'm just…" Merlin floundered for the words, stepping back from Gwen's embrace and flapping his hand uselessly.

"What am I going to do?" he asked in a small voice. Gwen smiled a sad smile.

"You're going to do what you always do. You're going to get up, and go out there and help people." She said simply.

"But what if-" Merlin started.

"No. Nothing is going to happen. You're safe, and people need you." She cut him off, not wanting him to wallow in his doubts. Merlin sighed resignedly: he knew Gwen was right. With a small gesture of thanks, he turned to the door and headed out towards the orphans' camp, determined to get on with hulping people.

It wasn't Merlin's fault, really; he'd been looking for historic inventory records and had accidentally opened up the sattellite timetable, then accidentally looked at it until he discovered the sattelite was currently in range. He really should try and talk to Arthur, even if he wouldn't listen, if he could just talk at him it would be enough. Then he could sya he'd done all he could to repair the resonant crevice that had appeared between them, severing their ties in ratty, moulting ends and rending the earth asunder.

He made a grab for the phone, dialling Arthur's number from memory. He ran through what he wanted to say in his head, adding words, removing phrases, alterin the implications, knowing that if he didn't get it out now, if he didn't say it all, he would never be able to try again: the distance would be too great, the ravine widening until arthu was out of sight and out of his life forever.

He had to have a try.

Merlin pressed the phot to his ear, hard enogh that he could feel the number buttons digging into his equine cheekbone, but he didn't care.

_Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. Booooooooooooop. The number you have called could not be reached. To leave a message, press one for hollo, press two for voice. _

He pressed 2 before he could think, but then his breath left him in a rush. What could he say? What message could he leave to make Arthur listen and _really listen_? The line was silent, recording.

"Arthur, I…" he trailed off and a choked sob racked his body and took him buy surprise. He hung up. He couldn't just leave a message, he had to know Arthur was there listening, he had to say everything he meant _to_ him. He breathed deeply, and though his eyes were still wet with tears unshed he tried again. He dialled Arthur's number and prssed the phone to his ear.

_The number you have called could not be reached. To-_

It didn't even ring. Arthur had seen it was him. He sobbed. Hanging up the phone on impulse, he threw the device away from him as if it had burned his palm and buried his head in his hands, leanding over his cluttered desk. One thought reverberated through his body, viberating through the hollowness of his unhappy frame. It was over. There was no hope. The revelation sat in the air before him, all he could focus on for a few fragile moments. And then he pulled himself back from the brink of the yawning cavern of black misery on which he stood on the precipice of. He took a deep breathe, tamped down the screaming wrongness of the situation, and got on with his work.

"Gaius?" Gwen asked, concerned. Gais looked at her in surprise, he hadn't noticed her arrival. He nodded out of the window towards Merlin.

"The poor boy's turning into a wraith" Gwen joined him at the window, watching as Merlin worked. He had the same vigour as always, but it was like his colour had gone. He barely smiled, barely slept, he was a shell of his former shelf.

"He misses Arthur. He's not eating, I'm worried about him." She frowned and crossed her arms protetoively.

"He's a strongboy, and he has strong friends. This too shall pass." Gaius put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a reassuring smile. Gwen tried to retun the look, but her heart wasn't in it. She smiled weakly.

"But what can we do Gaius? We can't make it stop hurting anymore than we can take his pain away."

"Be there for him. They say time heals all wounds"

"But will it heal this one?" There was nothing he could say to that. They both glanced back out the window, and turned back to their tasks.

"Ah Athur, come in." Uther called from where he sat behind his imposing desk.

"Father." Arthur walked into the rooms and gave a small bow of his head in respect when he came to a stop in front of this father.

"I need you took look over this list, it's the honors list for this years Most Excellent Order of the Galactic Empire appointments. Make sure everyone is...up to scratch." King Uther instructed with a vague wave of his hand as a footman passed the paper from his desk and into Arthur's waiting hand. Arthur rook a chair and began to persue the list as Uther continued:

"Preperations are going well, it's a pity about Aulfric leaving but his top reccommednation is proving to be reliable." said Uther.

"Mmm?" replied Arthur, idly reading through the list, skimming the names and letting his mind wander. It seemed strange to be dealing with such a banal thing as a ceremony, like his life wasn't spiralling out of control.

"Of course there's the usual complainging from the tablets about the use of taxpayer credits but that's to be expected. Every year they come out of the woodwork for a grumble, but not a one of them would say no to being on the list, would they? Not a one!" Uther continued the largely one sided conversatio.

"Mmm." came Arthur's absent agreement again.

He still wasn't sure why he hadn't tol his father. In fact, he knew it to be treason; powered communities had to be registered, and if Merlin had been register then Arthur never would have been sent to Tintagel in the first place, he would have carried on his life, his relationship, his plan. Nothing would have changed. He wouln't be in the middle of this storm of...of rage and betrayal and hurt, unable to tlalk to anyone, to talk to _Merlin_, to tell him...what? That he was a monster? That he was on Arthur's mind contantly, that he haunted his dreams, that he woke up sweating with Merlin's name on his lips trying to stop him, to change the past?

"Not that I ever would of course, oily lot they are, but it's a good trick to keep them in line! Very inportant that they know what's allowed. If they think they'll get any honours out of me for it then it's not skin off my teeth! I - what on earth's the matter?" Uther looked up alarm at Arthur's strangled noise.

"Merlin's on this list!" he exclamed, shaking the paper in his hand in furious excitement.

"Oh, yes, Brennis reviewed his charity and their work, their impact has been large. He is to be honoured with an MGE this year." said Uther absently.

"But you hate Merlin!" He couldn't come. Arthur wouldn't let this happen. He couldn't let Merlin walk rigt into the snake pit without even knowing it. Even if...even if Merlin had betrayed him, he didn't deserve that. Uther frowned and shook his head, looking at Arthur curiously.

"Of course not. I hate the thought of you throwing your future - the future of this kingdom - away on a silly dalliance. I had to stop you making an unfavourable choice. I see you have taken my advice however, so there is no cause for concern." He turned back to his papers.

"But...you can't!" exxclamed Arthur in a panic.

"I thought you'd be pleased for your friend," Uther replied, confused, as he thought his son would have been pleased at the gesture.

"He's not- I." Arthur broke off with a sigh of deflation.

"Arthur, is there something you need to tell me about this young man?" Uther asked, eyebrow raised in intrgues

"Any reason he should not be on this list?" Uther pressed on, standing up and walking slowly from behind his desk towards where Arthur sat, head cocked like a spaniel.

"No." Arthur grumbled petunatly, in a way that reminded him of being a teenager.

"Really, I thought you were beyond childish falling outs" scolded Uther lightly. Arthur rolled his eye and stood up clearly his throat.

"Yes, well. I best be getting on" he said, and abruptly walked out of the office.


	15. Chapter 15

Merlin lay in his bed asleep from exhaustion as the moons shone down on the silent palnes of Tintagel. The camp was quite in the dark, emptier than it had been recently thanks to a recent spike in adoption rates of the orphans. A small black cat, Pompompur, was curled by Merlin's feet as he sleeped.

Suddenly, threw the darkness, the sat phone on Merlin's desk ran. Merlin graoned into his pillow, waiting a moment for the ringing to stop, and when it continued, dragged himself to the desk, bleary eyed and grump.

"'Lo?" he mutterd into it.

"Mr Emrys. I am Catherine the Galactic Highness's King Uther Pendragon of the Camelot Nebula's Royal secretary." Melrin's heart stammered its beating in his chest. He couldn't speak, he could bearly even breathe, fully awake now, Merlin was on the verge of panic.

"Mr Emrys?" came the calm and neutral voice on the other end.

"Y-yes. Yes." he stuttered out.

"I am calling to inform you that you are honoured to have been appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the Galactic Empire. There will be a ceremony on Camelot, at the Royal Residence Dineault Castle. May I confirm your attendance?" said the secretary in an almost bored voice.

"Mr Emrys?" She repeated into the silent.

"Can I call you back?" Merlin blurted out.

"I will keep the line available for one hour." came the clipped professional response.

"Right. Right yeah, thanks." said Merlin, not paying attention to the words. Merlin put down the sat phine in shock and let out a small, slightly hysterical laugh, before running into the main area of the camp, not minding that it was dark night time.

"Gwen! Gwen!" he caled running to his friend's door and pounding on it. She emerged quickly, fully dressed and ready for whatever Merlin had to throw at her.

"I got a call and it's okay! I have to go, do you have a suit? I mean Lance. It's okay!" Merlin cried happily, grasping her small hands in his larger hands.

"What is it Merlin?" She said, asking the cuase of her friend's unrest.

"I've been awarded an MSE! I get to to Camelot! Where Arhtur is! Gwen he doesn't hate m!" he surge foreward and hugged her, enveloping her excited squeal at his achievement.

Gaius's suit was too big. Gwen had tried to take it in but she wasn't a seamstress and there was only so much she could do. Merlin shifted uncomfotrably, and the Sergan tat Arms in the doorway glared at him. Merlin felt himself burn scarlet under his piercing ambr gaze. He didn't fit in here and it was painfully obvious. His excitement and turned to anxiety to full on panic and now a toxic combination of nerves and misery roiled in his stomach.

He wished Gwen was with him. She'd agreed to come as his plus one - and looked absolutely stunning in a structure shell pink satin dress that made Lance gape at her, but apparently was just something she had 'tucked away' - but she was with the other guests in the main hall, watching the ceremony take place.

He hadn't seen Arthur yeet - not to surprising as he'd ben ushered from anti-room to anti-room since he arrived, and hadn't seen anyone beyond Catherine, Uther's secretary, a big man in a suit - probably secret cervice - that'd he'd hard being called Hopper, and the Sergant at Arms whom he'd been informed was named Major Kilgarrah. Merlin idly wondered if he was armed, though the ceremonial outfit seemed to have more gold cords than actual pockets, so he suspected not if one discounted the gilded heavy staff he banged on the floor when announcing people.

"Mister Dickon Tarly, esquire." Merlin flinced as the scepter smote the floor, surprised the aging wood didn't splinter under the bruite force. The man in front of him left the room, striding in to the main chamber with all to confidence hi slarge frame exuded. Merlin wondered what he was in for. Was 'services to bodybuilding' a category? He watched as he bowed before the king and received a striped ribon with a medallion hanging from iit, but his blood was rushing in his ears with nerves and he couldn't hear what foor.

"Mister Merlin Emrys, esquire." came the booming voice from the Sergent and Arms, and Merlin barely heard the staff cracking down even though he saw it happen. His legs moved and he walked towards the king, but he felt as though he had no control over his body at all.

The main room was large, the ceiling surely over 10 erds high, and filled with a gittering array of the galaxy' best and brightest. To the fore of the room was a slightly raised platform, with a long table draped in rich red holoserica fabric, and wit the medals laid out across the surface. A man stood beside it, handing the objects indivulally to the King, who stood at the front, and imposing presence in his royal formal dress.

Merlin glanced behind him and almost stumbled. Arthur, standing tall and proud and looking to much the royal prat that Merlin's heart ached, physically painful, for his desire to hear Arthur say something ridiculously pompous. He stared dead ahead, neither looking at MErlin nor at the audience, or at his father the King. His face was tense, mouth taut as if he'd rather be anywhere in the nebula than there.

"For services to charity" Uther announced as Merlin stopped in front of him. He tore his eyes away from Arthur with some difficulty and bowed. He felt the heavy ribbon place around his neck and straightened up. Uther's eyes met his, a steely grey so cold he almost shivered. They pierced into his soul and flayed his deepest secrets, exposing them to the harsh and unforgiving mlements of the king's scrutiny.

Then as soon as it came, it went. He joined the others on the other side of the hall, standing patiently for the end of the ceremony, but he didn't hear a word, his attention entirely devoted to _Arthur Arthur Arthur_. He flinched in surprise when a great applause erupted around him ad joined in, largely out of habit. The king left, followed closely by Arthur, and everyone else began to file out. There was a cocktail reception and mingling and nicities to deal with, and all Merlin wanted was for the camelot ground to swallow him up.

He caught Gwen's eye across the room and she came over to him, kind smile on her face, looping her elegant arms through his.

"You looked most honourable" she said, smile on her face that would have looked mocking on anyone else, but seemed sincere from her.

"I felt like I was going to be sick. Arthur wouldn't even look at me" Merlin confessed, abashed.

"Maybe he didn't see you?" She suggested. Merlin gave her a withering look, and she shrugged and plucked a drink from a circling tray..

"He could have been struck by temporary blindness." She said taking a sip, trying to come up with an explanation that wouldn't hurt Merlin's delicate feelings, she knew too well that he still was unable to joke about the catastrophoic heartbreak Arthur had caused ihm previously to this.

"That'd be my luck" Merlin muttered, and sipped his drink. Th ebubble fizzed under his noes, he scrundled it up and it felt like his was going to sneeze, but then, as soon as it have come, the feeling past. Unfortunatley it was at that exact momment that Her Royal Highness Morgana LeaFy-Pendragon appeared before them, glossy darkj hair flowing, and looking resplendant in a lavendar shimmery gown.

"Merlin! So good to see you again. Congratulations on your award" Merlin forced a smile on his face to hide his rising panic as Morgana kissed the air by hy cheeks, leaving an air of Venusian orchidlily, and black hole truffle musk behind.

"Thank you, your Royal highness" he replied, stiff and formal, but the princess royal pulled a face and flapped her hands.

"Oh please, call me Morgana, Both of you. I just adore your dress!" She turned to Gwen with a beaming sincere smile that made her blush prettily.

"Oh! Thank you, your- Morgana. I'm Gwen." Morgana's eyebrosed raised as she glance between the two of them.

"Merlin's...date?" She queried.

"Oh! No no, we work together."

"Ah, I see. So tell me where did you get that dress? I can't imagine Titagel is a hub of haute couture..." Ina smooth practiced move, Morgana slipped hand through Gwen's elbow and drew here away talking at length about fabrics and trends, leaving Merlin alone in a sea of suits and networking. He felt himself relax slightly - at least Gwen would have a good time, and he didn't feel terrible for being in such an awful mood when he was by himself.

He gazed around the room; the king was on the far side, smiling and shaking hands with other very important looking people, Gwen and Morgana were now surrounded by fashionable people, talking animatedly (Morgana) and looking so flattered Merlin thought she might pass out (Gwen). Arthur was nowhere to be seen, his golden head not shining like a beacon among all the salt and pepper before him. Suddenly there was a grab at his elbow, and a dark blob dragged him backwards.

"What...!" He tried to turn but almost fell over his feet. He was pulled back away from the main room and into a more dimly lit corridor, where he was pushed back against a wall roughly, knocking the air from his luncgs.

"Arthur!" Merlin gasped. The prince had immediately let go of him, and stood in front of him now glaring at him furiously, mouth tight and dark bags under his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Arthur hissed at him, glanging around nervously like he expected an ambush.

"I was invited?" Merlin scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"If Uther finds out..." He wa sick of it. He was sick of misery and fear, he was sick of feeling sick, and he had no interest at all in Arthur's bigotry and shame. A rage filled him suddenly, crackling his skin and storming through his chest. He pushed away from the wall an faced up to Arthur.

"Finds out what, Arthur? That I was born with powers I never asked for? Or that we f-" He was cut off with Arthurs hand over his mouth, which stunned him to silence by itself, calluses catching on his lips. Someone laughed too loud and too glose, and he was pushed back to the wall again.

"Shut up!" Arthur had panicked, as the voices moved away from them again he relised just how close he was to Merlin. His hand was covering his mouth, his other hand on his chest holding him against the wall. He could feel Merlin's pulse, rapid fire in his chest, the warmth of his body, the smoothnes of his skin. His eyes...oceans of hurt, of anger, glimmering with hope and something warm.

He released Merlin's mouth, and laid his hand on the other mans cheek. He traced his cheekbones, his jaw, all of his anger and worry overwhelmed by just how much he'd _missed_ Merlin. His heart ached with the need to be closer, somehow, then they already were, like there was somehow still a gaping chasm between them.

"I…" Arthur started to speak but cut himself off. Words were not enough. There would never be a language capable to expressing his maelstrom of feeling. A small movement, one of them, both of them moving together and Merlin's lips were pressed against his, dry and soft and _everything_. It was like nothing they'd shared before, there was no passion, just a crashing wave of emotion that left Arthur heady and dizzy and desperate. He felt Merlin choke against his lips, like a sob, and reality hit him like a cargoship. He couldn't do this, ny of this. It was too difficult.

Arthur pushed away and the lack of wamrth was like a slap in Merlin's face. He slumped back aginst the wall and watched Arthur pace in front of him, rubbing his face in distress. He yearned for the press of his body again; he felt cast adrift without Arthur to anchor him to reality, but Arthur wasn't looking at him, like he couldn't bring himself to meat his eyes.

"You need to leave" Arthur said softly. Merlin felt as though a rug had been pulled under his feet, his heart plummiting and a rolling sour feeling in his stomach.

"I came to see you." His voice came out weak, a crackle. he watched arthur pace as his eyes blurred wit tears.

"That's not your decision to make, _Mer_lin" He snapped, his hea twisting to shout at him but not looking up from the ground and Merlin felt his anger return in a flash, the tears in his eyes were hot and felt poisonous. How _dare_ he? How _dare_ Arthur presume to take away Merlin's involvement, to treat him s if he was a toy that could be picked up and put down who wasn't invested in this, in _them._

"You know what? Screw you. I've been terrified for moths that the executioner is going to come for me, or that Tintagel is going to be blown up, or that I can't keep everyone around me safe because of you! Because of your bigotry!" Arthur stopped pacing and looked at him, finally, alarmed by his outburs and Merlin pressed his advantage, pushing away from the wall and crowding Arthur's spce, forcing him to back up.

"I would never-" He look offended, hurt, confused: a swirlying chatoic storm in his eyes but Merlin was just too angry to succome to the twist he felt in his chest.

"Your father would! Your father does!" He hissed, jabbing at Arthur's chest. Arthur flinched, at the contact or at the pain, he wasn't sure.

"I am not my father." Arthur was trying to keep him safe, to keep them _both _safe, and Merlin couldn't see that. If they did thi, Merlin's whole livlihood would be ruined, everything he had worked for would be gone, and Arthur...Arthur didn't care what happened t him. He just wanted Merlin to be happy, to be safe.

"You just have his predjuices" Merlin scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"No!" If he could just explain, but the words eluded him. All the feelings raging inide, he couldn't sort them into a nice neat order at put them into words there was just too much, and it was too tangled and complicated but he needed to explain, to tell Merlin everything, if only he could figure out where to start.

"Then what, exactly, is your problem?" There was a brief silence, Arthur's mind had gone blank. He was never going to know, never going to have a speech prepared fo this. He took a deep breathe and dove in headfirst, eyes locked with Merlin's in a desperate plea for him to understand.

"I can't stop thinking about you. Uther always said that maigc is evil, but...you saved me. You're not evil, so how could that be true? It's not...you're not made bad because of it." Merlin's face softened, but now he started he couldn't stop.

"Arthur..." Merlin whispered, but Arthur shook his head and turned away from him. Merlin let him go.

"I- I'm sorry, Merlin. I reacted poorly, and I mistreated you as a result." Arthur turned away from him ans resumed his pacing up and down the corridor, running his hand through his hair and tugging the golden strands. Eyes wild and hair ruffled, he looked like a caged animal, lithe and angile, moving with repressed stress in every musce.

"Do you know what it's like being enchanted? It felt like I was a passenger in my own body. Sophia had taken over and I had to watch as I said and did things and none noticed. Not my father, not Morgana. Then when you showed up and...I didn't know what to think. I still don't. How can I hate magic and love you, even after that?" Arthur stopped abruptly and looked at Merlin with wild, desperte eyes and his breath caught in his chest at the unfettered hurt he saw there.

"I would tear worlds apart for you, Arthur." Arhtur stared at Merlin, tears echoing in his eyes. Merlin looked back, crying still. He held out a hand, cautious, but Arthur stepped into his space agerly until they were together, close enough that Merlin could feel his breathed ghosting across his face.

"I'm sorry," said Arthur, his voice thick with choked emtions. He stepped in Merlin's space, string hand moving to the slighter man's narrow waist. He kissed Merlin's temple, and gently wiped away the tears from Merlin's face with his large thumb. Merlin smiled a little as he gazed at his Prince.

"No, I'm sorry. Gods, Arthur, I'm so sorry. I didn't know." He kissed Arthur's thumb and ran his hand up to the other man's blond hair. Trembling; they held each other close.

"It's okay, we're going to be okay." Arthur whispered reassuring both himself and Merlin with his sweet words as he stroked the warlock's spiney back. Merlin nodded and buried his face in Arthur's broad shoulder, letting this prince hold him close to his well sculptured muscular chest. Even through Arthur's ceremonial robes he he could hear the pounding of his excited heart. He grinned broadly for the first time since he arrived at the ceremony and pulled back from Arthur's stronghold. Pulling himself up to his full height, to match the other man's, he leaned in for a slow and languid kiss.

Arthur returned it with joy. And as the moments passed it became more than a kiss between them, as they held each other and kissed, it was an apology for words unspoken and chances not taken; the kiss was a promise for the future which hung over their heads, dangling so uncertain, a sword of dammocles poised to rendered them apart at the waive of Uther's cruelly manacled hand. The kiss was a perfect moment. It allowed the men to let go of all their worries and regrets in the understanding that they never stood alone in them and never would.

Merlin stepped back and Arthur stepped with him, until the dark haired man was pushed against the corridor wall in romantic desperation. Merlin broke the kiss.

"Arthur, we should stop," he said, lips puffy from the kissing.

"Not your best idea," said Arthur back and moved to kiss Merlin again. Merlin stopped him with a delicate hand.

"We're in the middle of a corridor. In the middle of your father's castle. We're doing very badly at being subtle." He pointed out with a rueful face. Arthur groaned in the reluctant acknowledgement that Merlin was right and stepped away from his partner.

"Just you wait until we get back to Tintangel" he promised with a grinned.


	16. Epilogue

Gwaine sat on the sand banks of Tintagel, playing with Honeystring, a tortoise shell kitten who was rolling around in the dusty sand at his feet, he casually stroked her belly in the blistering sunglight as he looked out on the planent and sighed. Toby sat by his side, purring in gentle contentment. Gwaine smiled a sad smile, looking down at the cat, in the knowledge that he would be leaving soon, alone. Looking up as he heard someone approach, he saw Arthur's golden outline coming nearer across that sand.

"Evening Princess," he called to the prince. Athur looked disgruntled, and not just at the nickname. Since his re-arrival on Tintagel two months prior he had settled back into camp life, made slightly more luxurious than before by Merlin's magical tokens of affections, but Gwaine's demeanour around his boyfriend still mad him uncomfortable. Merlin has laughed off Arthur's objections to Gwaine's flirting with jokes about cats and how adorable that Arthur was when he was jealous. If anything, Arthur thought, his objections had made the flriting worse. Arthur had decided that it was time to have a Talk with Gwaine.

"Gwaine," the prince acknowledge the other man as he sat on his catless side. Gwaine's easy grin didn't falter even at Arthur's serious face.

"Watch out for Honeystring, she has a thing for pouncing on feet," he said as Arthur sat down and eyed the kitten and Gwaine continued to play with her.

"Gwaine, I have an important matter to discuss with you. About Merlin." Arthur strated. Gwaine immediately stopped playing with the mewing kitten.

"Sounds serious, princess. Is Merling okay?" He replied. Arthur cleared his throat in nerves.

"Merlin is fine." He started again, before being interrupted by Gwaine's salacious eyebrow raise. He huffed in frustration.

"But that's the problem. You have to stop hitting on my boyfriend!" he blurted out, sounding more like a petulant teenager than a regal prince laying down the law. Gwaine tried, valiantly, to keep a straight face, but it broke into a grin.

"I've not been hitting on your boyfriend" he replied.

"Yes you have. You're always… flirting with Merlin! I know that's why you keep coming back here!" Arthur replied, exasperated. Honeystring glared at the prince, startled by his tone.

"I come back to deliver medical supplies." Gwaine explained, looking at Arthru's unbelieving face he conceded a little:

"Okay… okay… I also come for the cats." He said, as if that explained everything. Arthur groaned in frustration, burying his head in his hands, Honeystring choosing this moment to pounce on Arthur's foot, as if to emphasis Gwaine's point. The pirate laughed gently at the kitten and scooped her into his hands.

"You hit on Merlin all the time. Am I suppsed to believe a man like you- with your reputation- is just here for.. for… kittens?" he asked, spitting the last word in disbelieve.

"You shouldn't listen to rumours. None of them are true, anyway" Gwaine replied, hugging the kitten in his arms.

"Really? None of them?" Arthur asked septically. Gwaine grinned more.

"A reputation can be a useful thing for a priate." He explained gently.

"So you can honestly say that you have no intentions towards Merlin?" Arthur asked. Gwaine laughed, before his face dropped back to serious at Arthur's sullen expression.

"You do know I'm asexual, right?" Gwaine responded.

"I…did not." Said Arthur, slightly embarrassed.

"Yup, just here for the cats. The flirting's just a joke." Gwaine reiterated. An awkward silence stretch on as Gwaine juggled fussing both Toby and Honeystring.

"Why don't you just take some of the cats with you, if you like them so much?" Asked Arthur eventually. Gwaine looked at him, scandalised, as if the prince were mad.

"Have you ever tried to take a cat on a spaceship? They get so sick." He explained, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The awkward silence dragged on until, across the dessert they heard a voice calling:

"Arthur? Gwaine?!" came Merlin's voice, appearing before the man himself. Arthur broke into a smitten smile, which mirrored the one on Merlin's face as he gave him a light peck on the mouth.

"Come back to the camp, you two. It's dinner time." He said, voice full of knowing at the conversation that had passed between the prince and the pirate. Arthur stood up and took his hand, Gwaine standing on Merllin's other side, kitten still ensconced safely in his arms and followed by Tony, the trio headed back into the camp in the Tintagellian sunset.


End file.
